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IS  " 


OF  .      p-i 

Los  At'geies,  U»- 


ENGLISH    LITERATURE 


In  tlje  Eeifltt  of  Ftctoria 


WITH   A    GLANCE    AT    THE    PAST 


BY 


HENRY    MORLEY,   LL.D. 

PROFESSOR   OF   ENGLISH    LITERATURE   AT    UNIVERSITY   COLLECE 
LONDON 


REPRINTED    BY    ARRANGEMENT    FROM    VOLUME    2000    OF    THE 
TAUCHNITZ  COLLECTION   OF   BRITISH  AUTHORS 


WITH  A    FRONTISPIECE 


NEW  YORK 
G.    P.    PUTNAM'S    SONS 

27   AND   29  WEST   23D   STREET 
1882 


MS2 


TO 


THEIR  MOST   GRACIOUS   MAJESTIES 

KING    ALBERT    and     QUEEN    CAROLA 

OF  SAXONY 

3Efjts  Ualume  2000  is  Brtiicatrti 

AS  A  TOKEN  OF  RESPECT  AND  GRATITUDE  BY  THEIR 

MAJESTIES'  MOST  FAITHFUL  AND 

LOYAL  SUBJECT 

TAUCHNITZ 


In  publishing  the  Two  Thousandth  volume  of  my  Scries,  the 
feeling  deepest  and  strongest  in  my  mind  is  that  of  gratitude  to 
God  for  having  permitted  me  to  carry  on  my  undertaking  for 
the  long  period  of  forty  years,  during  fifteen  of  which  my 
eldest  son  Bernhard  has  supported  me  with  the  greatest  loyalty 
and  devotion. 

Many  a  great  author,  whose  brilliant  name  is  an  ornament  to 
the  Collection,  has  during  the  lapse  of  time  passed  away  ;  and 
on  this  occasion,  when  I  am,  as  it  were,  placing  a  memorial 
stone  of  my  progress,  the  recollection  of  such  losses  comes 
home  to  me  with  peculiar  poignancy. 

But  though  the   dead   are  gone,   their  works  remain  ;    new 

authors  have  joined  the  ranks  ;   and  I  am  encouraged  to  hope 

that  the  Tauchnitz  Edition  will  still  proceed  in  its  old  spirit, 

and  continue  to  fulfil  its  mission,  by  spreading  and  strengthen- 

ino-  the  love  for  English  Literature  outside  of  England  and  her 

Colonies. 

TAUCHNITZ. 

Lcipzi'j,  December  1881. 


PREFACE. 


When  Baron  Tauchnitz  asked  me  to  write  this  little  book,  of 
which  the  design  is  his,  he  also  wished  me  to  include  in  it  some 
record  of  the  Literature  of  America.  But  the  stability  due  to 
sustained  earnestness  of  purpose  in  the  publisher,  and  wide  use 
by  the  public  of  the  series  of  books  now  numbering  two  thou- 
sand, will  give  opportunity  for  other  volumes  that  commemorate 
stages  of  progress.  Baron  Tauchnitz  therefore  eordiall}-  agreed 
to  a  suggestion  that  the  kindred  Literature  of  America,  though 
we  are  proud  in  England  to  claim  closest  brotherhood  with  our 
fellow  countrymen  of  the  United  States,  has  a  distinct  interest 
of  its  own,  large  enough  for  the  whole  subject  of  another 
memorial  volume,  and  that  an  American  author  would  best  tell 
the  story  of  its  rise  and  progress. 

Let  me  be  permitted  to  add  of  the  Tauchnitz  Collection, 
that  I  know  no  English  writer  who  would  not  now  be  read}7  to 
congratulate  its  founder  upon  his  success  thus  far  in  joining 
care  for  the  higher  interests  of  Literature  with  the  diffusion 
of  much  healthy  intellectual  amusement.  Writers  as  well  as 
readers  wish  God  Speed  to  the  continuation  of  his  work. 

H.  M. 

University  College,  London, 

November  23, 1881. 

vii 


CONTENTS. 


A   GLANCE   AT   THE   PAST. 
CHAPTER   I. 

PAGE 

From  the  Beginning  to  the  Reign  of  Elizabeth 1 

CHAPTER  II. 

From  the  Reign  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Reign  of  Anne     ....      25 

CHAPTER   III. 
Fkom  the  Reign  of  Anxe  to  the  Reign  of  Victoria 67 

IN   THE   REIGN  OF  VICTORIA. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

Of  those  who  were  old  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Reign;  and 

of  the  Poets,  AYordsworth,  Southey,  Landok 99 

CHAPTER  V. 

Journalists  of  the  Elder  Generation,  Essayists  and  Poets      .    135 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Of  "Women  who  wrote  in  the  Early  Part  of  the  Reign    .    .    .    151 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Of  those  by  whom  Cheap  Literature  was  made  useful;  axd  of 

the  Earlier  Life  of  Thomas  Babington  Macaulay    .     .     .     .    1GG 

ix 


X  COX  TENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PAGE 

Of  Writers  who  were  between  Fifty  and  Sixty  Years  old  at 

the  Beginning  of  the  Reign 200 

CHAPTER   IX. 
Men  of  the  next  Decade  of  Years 220 

CHAPTER  X. 

Of  Thomas  Carlyle,  and  of  Divines  and  Wits 257 

CHAPTER  XL 
Onward  Battle 291 

CHAPTER  XII. 
The  best  Vigour  of  the  Time;  and  what  remains  of  it      ...    319 


FACSIMILES 

OF    THE 

SIGNATURES  OF  AUTHORS 

IN 

THE  TAUCHNITZ  EDITION 

PHOTOGRAPHED 

FROM  THEIR   CORRESPONDENCE 

AND  AGREEMENTS 

WITH 

BARON    TAUCHNITZ. 
A   FRONTISPIECE  TO  VOLUME   2000. 


OJ  English  Literature 


Ill 


The  following,  with  a  very  few  unavoidable  exceptions,  forms  a 
complete  list  of  the  contemporary  A  uthors  who  have  contributed  to  the 
Tauchnitz  Edition. 

Where  several  Facsimiles  belong  to  one  and  the  same  person,  they 
are  placed  together  and  enclosed  between  two  lines.  In  all  such  cases 
the  Author  is  inserted  in  the  alphabetical  order  under  the  name  by 
which  he  first  appeared  in  the  Tauchnitz  Edition. 

The  American  Authors  are  marked  by  a  *  before  the  continuous 
number  in  the  inner  margin. 

The  date  of  each  signature  is  given  in  the  outer  margin. 


i 

1880 

*4     ow*a.«u»V}qvJIa^  OJlWJL 


•  1844 


876 


IV 


i878 


-  Ut .  wA^A? 


1873 


•    4-    /l^J^i^u  ' 


1868 


1875 


&&*-^<^&  oii<_       /°&l«-**>&S  te. 


(fcA.^  S^^s, 


i873 


/f,%4U 


friolc__^ 


1880 


j£^$^ff*&~*.^ 


'3 


1843 


1871 


VI 


i866 


^1_  »a 


,88,        •   /-*^<     ^    /  &<?^^ 


1880 


16 


17 


1868 


/llrfti. 


18 


VII 


tyt.U*    ^^f^,. 


1862 


1871 


'843 


1844 


1868 


VI11 


1868 


23 


1869 


?r?r 


24 


«873 


187a 


/fcj??  £   /Zu*£T 


«5 


IX 


.6  JvK-       u/^/-      ^^C^^at^^t^  l8?6 


'7 


«8 


~?.<r< 


CvCjL 


1877 


1865 


29 


187a 


3= 


f^U^/^^. 


1876 


i88t 


^___  /^^-^> 


1872 


^Xjl^    ^a^^^^rC^, 


1874 


33 


1856 


tTc^c^c*? 


34 


1873 


ytoisscu^c^.     <Jk  .  (^atul^X  . 


35 


«857  c-^^ 


<0^*--^-«v 


*r^ 


►36 


XI 


/£U^?  ^ 


•  1881 


1879. 


40 


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'844 


1 86z 


1867 


XII 


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1872 


43 


t865 


1868 


OAK 


45 


1863 


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-<e 


46 


XIII 


tfUCAsisOt^ 


Ci^A' 


47 

i87S 


<Z^c^uJ     Zer^teS 


£?: 


1880 


51  ,87s 


50 


52 

1878 


XIV 


l872  t^^fiL^/rctstriA^ 


53 


1861 


54 


1878   Cj^-^^^^f^^e. 


55 


1858 


1875 


&W^j££^6£ 


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56 


57 


1847 


58 


XV 


w 


60 


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6a 


187S 


1877 


1877 


1864 


*  9^  <^:eUM-H^^^il 


1878 


XVI 


1872 


j876 


1879 


<n+m^^h 


~4~*<By. 


y6L^y^-^\ 


64 


65 


*66 


1860  o/fh^^O^^c^  ffiZzc^Z-^rz^ 


*67 


1872 


68 


1872 


69 


xvn 


/I 


7°  1864 


22^7 *  * 


♦72 


fa(pfa^z, 


877 


1879 


73  •  C/  •^*7/  v  1871 


74 J 1858 


A/te^L      l/r~&i>t^^ 


75  /  '         !874 


XVIII 


1873 


i8so 


1843 


1877 


L£a^;J.0L.4'M** 


25*iu 


^ 


'77 


78 


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"7g 


1870 


^\vw  Ca^V^V^^* 


80 


XIX 


-     &      tf.fen^^ 


82 


83 


187s 


1873 


1852 


84 


1877 


86 


£%sPt^C    /£*- 


1872 


XX 


i863 


>87 


1863 


88 


1856 


89 


1881 


90 


^/$U*>Uj     ^U^/Q^y 


XXI 


IkaxfUJ/du^ 


92  l879 


/i2^^2^c^_^_^ 


1862 


-  /*  y?/<jL  s*/z***t 


[_^C^^^-^^^>ty^   • 


95 


'  /7/t  (Z^s  j££<€*-&<z  l8S6 


XXII 


1872 


97 


i876 


^  /   ^K^2^<   <^2^^*£<* 


98 


1880 


99 


1872 


ic\o/wv-f  tyy  sA^^^3xjg^ 


1880 


XXIII 


1853 


1859 


104 


1872 


105 


,       1872 


XXIV 


**^X^  i^^U^- 


"io6 


//^^i^U^C^^-^  /^T^^^y^t^z^^ 


107 


1854 


108 


1870 


1854 


*££-«^* 


^-^^t-^^H 


109 


XXV 


tft^J^r 


1844 


(^^^^^^^ 


£C^£Cf 


1875 


1856 


"3 


1880 


114 


L 


"5 


1878 


L^ 


1866 


XXVI 


fvfawY\{vi 


■»7s      //  LO  V\K/UV\,vVi.e'ltVk  "<■ 


^c^ 


l87*   I   77jT*+^+  -~  Sft~^   I      X,    *V  "7 


^jk^f 


H8 


'857  fJ\r\J       I;       f     /  "9 


i86S 


XXVII 


/ 


}rt~ 


f&AtAy 


JA 


~4>4*r~?utm.tt4%:       1869 


"3 


1880 


N/ 


124 


C^Jiyfr^juu^ 


1871 


XXVIII 


x865  %i^TA/^fUy^A^^^  I25 


1866  I y  //  *  */  *a  126 


^__62^l 


1868  ffUMuJU^  T&Jy?  "7 


*-~—^—^*4X~*^  ~    ^^ZS^Z. •  128 

,87,  ^^^^>    <f**f*y   - 


XXIX 


«  £  &&ctces  <^<**&^ 


134 


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1875 


1872 


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<^€- 


1872 


«*     Q^/7/k^7   ^£^^£l___      l8s6 


XXX 


i866 


%76fifc6b^ 


137 


1865 


It^uii  fitftxA^r^ 


138 


1861 


139 


869  C^fa&* 


140 


1878 


2^2^- 


141 


XXXI 


i86i 


■«  lj\£c<AA/c<-**^A<£t^'  «'■ 


M4 


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1863 


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1876 


46  h ' G-&UXj£rdL  ftuCcfZ-tfci^ 


1873 


XXXII 


1879 


M7 


1857 


-^%^^^^-C^^  I48 


1852 


1872 


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'151 


//Jl^4^4- 


I52j 


xxxnr 


153 


^/i^U^A^i-t^-r  ^4^^ 


W~         ,863 


Ujlfi^ySfX, 


1 55 


C 


-I^SZ^Z-Y, 


SjtfZ^US^  1857 


^  CC£\J/v<?    U\^eJ UjZj^Jci l87S 


1879 


Of  English  Literature. 


XXXIV 


i875 


1870 


*57 


'58 


1878 


iSJ 


1874 


^J^^/2/^^ 


160 


1870 


XXXV 


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1872 


^_y-^^  .  (-^^c^^>t^^^^t^£^ 


1879 


163 


i854 


164 


1877 


XXXVI 


AJ '•  /fa <x<*JUwpvc  lA/ct'lt*'*-*- 


•65 


1856 


l\  fW*  <*/w       Ju3--fe<AA^«A_ 


*i66 


1880 


^#V^?.  .* 


Wti&L    Wk, 


tz- 


168 


1861 


i/^c^   #>z^ 


169 


l869    L^/iiTL^^^^^lAz^^s-X-    '70 


XXXVII 


^ 


171 


<&t -/■  e-^&^t^      Zt^y/x^-yC  <x^€f       1861 


.*Cugfr 


1868 


'73 


1861 


XXXVIII 


ADDENDA. 

Mrs.  Armies  is  the  author  of  "  Molly  Bawn." 

Miss  Blind  is  the  Editor  of  Shelley's  works. 

Miss  Charlotte  Bronte  wrote  under  the  nom  de  guerre  of 
Currer  Bell.  This  signature  is  as  an  exception  not  from  our 
own  correspondence  but  we  are  indebted  for  it  to  Messrs. 
Smith,  Elder,  &  Co. 

The  three  members  of  the  Bulwer-Lytton  family  who  have 
contributed  to  the  Tauchnitz  Edition  are  inserted  in  the  alpha- 
betical order  under  Bulwer.  Sir  Henry  Lytton  Bulwer  died 
as  Lord  Dal  ling.  The  present  Lord  Lytton  published  his 
enrly  works  under  the  nom  de  guerre  of"  Owen  Meredith." 

Mrs.  Charles  is  the  Author  of  ' '  Chronicles  of  the  Schon- 
berg-Cotta  Family." 

Miss  Dickens  and  Miss  Hogarth,  the  Editors  of  the  letters 
of  the  late  Charles  Dickens,  are  added  to  Mr.  Dickens. 

Mr.  Alex.  Dyce  was  the  Editor  of  our  second  edition  of 
Shakespeare. 

George  Eliot  was  the  nom  de  guerre  of  Miss  Evans. 

Mr.  Ferdinand  Freiligrath  was  the  Editor  of  our  edition  of 
Coleridge. 

Mr.  l/amerton  is  the  Author  of  "  Marmorne." 


XXXIX 


Miss  Iza  Hardy  is  the  Author  of  "  Not  easily  Jealous." 

Mrs.  Houstoun  is  the  Author  of  "  Recommended  to 
Mercy." 

Mr.  l-fueffer  is  the  Editor  of  Mr.  Rossetti's  Poems. 

Mrs.  Hunt  writes  under  the  nom  de guerre  of  Averil  Beau- 
mont. 

Mrs.  Fanny  E.  Kingsley,  wife  of  the  late  Rev.  Charles 
Kingsley,  is  the  Editor  of  the  Letters  and  Memories  of  his 
Life. 

Major  Lawrence  was  the  Author  of  "  Guy  Livingstone." 

Lord  Macaulay's  signature  appears  first  as  it  was  before 
Her  Majesty  raised  him  to  the  peerage,  and  secondly  after 
that  dignity  was  bestowed  on  him. 

Lord  Mahon  published  most  of  his  works  under  this  name, 
until  he  became  Lord  Stanhope  after  the  death  of  his  father. 

Miss  Helen  Ma/hers  is  now  Mrs.  Henry  Reeves 

Miss  Florence  Marryal  is  now  Mrs.  Francis  Lean. 

Afiss  Dinah  Maria  Mulock  is  now  Mrs.  G.  L.  Craik. 

Ouida  is  the  nom  de  git  ewe  of  Miss  Louise  de  la  Rame. 

Miss  Harriet  Parr  writes  under  the  nom  de  guerre  of  Holme 
Lee. 

Mrs.  Paul  is  the  Author  of  "  Still  Waters." 

Mr.  Prior  is  the  Author  of  "  Expiated." 

Miss  Piddington  is  the  Author  of  "  The  Last  of  the  Cava- 
liers." 

Mrs.  Riddle's  nom  de  guerre  is  F.  G.  Trafford. 

Miss  Roberts  is  the  Author  of  "  Mademoiselle  Mori." 

Mr,  Robinson  is  the  Author  of  "  No  Church." 

Miss  Stirling  is  now  Mrs.  MacCallum. 

Miss  Thackeray  is  now  Mrs.  Ritchie. 


XL 


Dr.  C.  von  Tischendorf  was  the  Editor  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment (vol.  iooo). 

Mark  Twain  is  the  nom  de  guerre  of  Mr.  S.  L.  Clemens. 

Dr.  C.  Vogel  was  the  Editor  of  vol.  500,  "  Five  Centuries 
of  the  English  Language  and  Literature." 

Miss  Susan  Warner  s  ?iom  de  guerre  is  Wetherell. 

Mr.  Charles  Wood  is  the  Author  of  "  Buried  Alone." 

Ellen  Wood  is  synonymous  with  Mrs.  Henry  Wood.  This 
Lady  also  wrote  under  the  nom  de  guerre  of  Johnny  Ludlow. 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 


OF 


ENGLISH    LITEEATUEE 


CHAPTER  I. 

FROM  THE   BEGINNING   TO   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH. 

Worthy  life  of  a  Man  has  one  high  aim.  It  is  so  with 
the  life  of  a  Nation.  Everyday's  work,  no  doubt,  must 
owe  its  form  to  the  day's  accidents ;  but  within  the  form 
breathes  always  the  life  itself,  that  changes  only  by  ad- 
vance in  knowledge  of  the  path  it  means  to  tread.  There 
is  a  single  England  and  a  single  Germany,  as  truly  as  there 
is  a  single  Englishman  or  German.  They  are  twin  nations, 
with  a  strong  family  likeness.  Nevertheless  they  differ 
as  brothers  who  live  apart,  each  with  his  outward  life 
determined  by  those  accidents  of  position  which  cause 
also  his  individuality  of  thought  and  character  to  be  more 
clearly  marked.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  little  book  to 
tell  as  much  as  it  can  in  a  few  pages  of  the  spirit  of  Eng- 
lish Literature  in  that  part  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria 
which  now  belongs  to  History v\  Literature,  of  all  things 
upon  earth  the  most  significant,  is  no  chance  feast  of 
scraps,  it  is  the  best  utterance  of  the  mind  of  a  people 
which  has  its  embodiment  in  deeds  set  forth  by  the  histo- 


2  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

rian.  But  the  present  thoughts  of  a  man  cannot  be  fairly- 
interpreted  without  some  knowledge  of  the  thoughts  that 
led  to  them.  |  For  men  and  nations,  yesterday  lives  with 
to-daj%  and  travels  with  to-day  into  to-morrow.  Let  us 
lighten,  therefore,  an  attempt  to  understand  a  little  of  the 
present,  by  a  very  swift  glance  at  the  past. 

Before  the  coming  of  Teutonic  settlers  who  gave  Eng- 
land its  name,  there  were  Celts  in  Britain.  Each  of  the 
two  branches  of  the  great  Celtic  stock  contributed  to  the 
first  peopling,  and  throughout  the  land  national  character 
is  more  or  less  tempered  by  a  blending  in  various  degrees 
of  Celt  with  Teuton.  The  highest  literature  springs  out 
of  the  hearts  that  are  most  deeply  stirred.  A  struggle  for 
independence,  ending  in  a  great  defeat  at  the  battle  of 
Gabhra,  assigned  by  tradition  to  the  year  284,  gave  rise 
among  the  Gaelic  Celts  of  Erin  to  their  first  great  out- 
pouring of  song. 

A  like  struggle  was  forced  upon  the  Cymric  Celts  of 
Britain  by  incoming  of  the  Teutons.  As  these  spread 
inland  from  the  eastern  shore,  on  which  they  landed,  their 
hold  on  the  soil  was  contested,  and  here  also  there  was 
a  great  defeat  of  the  Celts  closing  a  period  of  intense 
energy.  King  Arthur,  if  he  ever  lived,  lived  then  as  a 
Cymric  leader.  But  echoes  of  the  oldest  song  tell  rather 
of  Urien,  a  northern  chief,  whose  bards  were  Taliesin, 
Llywarch  the  Old,  Merddhin  or  Merlin,  and  Aneurin. 
Aneurin's  "  Gododin "  was  one  long  lament  for  the  ruin 
of  the  British  cause  in  the  six  days  battle  of  Cattraeth, 
assigned  by  tradition  to  the  year  570. 

From  all  points  of  the  mainland  opposite  the  eastern 
shores  of  England,  by  a  natural  process  of  migration,  still 
at  work  though  under  milder  forms  of  a  more  civilized 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  3 

society,  the  Teutonic  settlers  came.  To  this  day  the 
marks  are  unmistakable  of  Scandinavian,  Danish,  and 
Frisian  ancestry  among  the  nations  of  those  parts  of 
England  that  are  opposite  the  coasts  of  Scandinavians, 
Danes,  and  Frisians. 

Movements  of  the  more  energetic  produced  fusion  of 
kindred  settlements  with  kindred  forms  of  speech.  The 
old  diversity  being  still  represented  by  provincial  dialects, 
there  was  shaped  a  nation  with  one  language  of  its  own, 
which  took  the  name  of  one  of  the  constituent  tribes,  and 
became  thenceforth  English.  We  now  call  that  earliest 
form  of  English  speech  First  English  or  Anglosaxon.  In 
this  language,  and  as  early  as  the  seventh  century,  at  some 
time  between  the  years  658  and  680,  was  struck  the  first 
note  of  an  English  Literature. 

Celtic  missionaries  were,  in  the  north  of  England,  bring- 
ing Christianity  into  the  homes  of  the  new  settlers,  when 
a  poet  known  to  us  as  Csedmon  joined  the  religious  house 
then  formed  at  Whitby  under  Abbess  Hilda.  He  joined 
Hilda's  community  and  took  his  part  in  the  good  work  by 
setting  to  the  music  of  old  northern  heroic  song  parts  of 
the  Bible  story  used  as  means  of  quickening  a  simple  faith 
in  God. 

There  is  another  large  poem  in  First  English,  perhaps, 
in  its  English  form,  as  old  as  Caedmon's  Paraphrase,  and 
in  its  original  form,  as  a  Scandinavian  or  Danish  saga,  cer- 
tainly older.  In  mythical  record  of  the  deeds  of  Beowulf 
this  vividly  represents  the  chief  characters  of  the  old 
northern  life  as  it  was  when  it  began  to  lay  foundations 
of  the  future  strength  of  England. 

Out  of  the  shaping  energies  that  gave  birth  to  a  nation, 
while   their  impulse  was  yet  fresh,  these   poems   came. 


4  A    GLANCE  AT   THE  PAST 

There  were  no  later  utterances  of  like  force  during  the 
four  centuries  of  Anglosaxon  England. 

But  the  life  of  those  four  centuries  was  in  their  Litera- 
ture, with  a  clear  voice  of  its  own.  From  Bede,  who  was 
born  when  Credmon  lived  and  sang,  to  King  Alfred  who 
toiled  to  restore  the  broken  forces  of  his  country,  and 
beyond  the  days  of  Alfred,  the  whole  company  of  the  First 
English  writers  laboured  with  one  aim.  Bede,  devoted 
from  childhood  to  the  service  of  God,  spent  his  life  in  the 
monastery  at  Jarrow  in  work  and  worship.  All  but  the 
hours  of  prayer  were  hours  of  strenuous  work  for  the  in- 
crease of  knowledge,  and  through  knowledge  of  wisdom, 
among  his  countrymen.  He  crowned  his  literary  life  with 
an  endeavour  to  tell  faithfully  the  History  of  that  shaping 
of  England  which  was  still  in  many  of  its  details  within 
living  memories,  within  even  each  day's  experience  of 
living  men. 

Such  faithful  labour  for  the  spread  of  knowledge  as  was 
represented  by  the  work  of  Bede,  made  England  in  the 
days  of  Alcuin  a  source  of  light  even  for  the  empire  of 
Charlemagne.  Alcuin,  who  was  born  about  the  time  of 
the  death  of  Bede,  in  735,  and  who  was  bred  from  early 
childhood  in  the  monastery  at  York,  where  he  became 
librarian  and  schoolmaster,  acquired  fame  as  a  teacher 
that  caused  Charlemagne,  when  he  met  with  him,  by 
chance,  in  the  year  781,  to  draw  him  to  his  own  court  as 
a  helper.  It  was  a  countryman  of  Alcuin,  whose  name 
suggests  that  he  may  have  had  Celtic  blood  in  his  veins, 
John  Scotus  Erigena,  who  made  the  first  breach  in  the 
wall  that  parted  theological  from  other  teaching.  The 
aim  of  the  early  schoolmen  was,  in  one  way  or  another  — 
every  way  leading  to  frequent  censure  from  the  Pope  —  to 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  5 

be  at  the  same  time  theologians  and  philosophers,  but  still 
with  little  or  no  question  of  established  dogma.  The  first 
of  the  schoolmen  was  Erigena.  With  an  Englishman,  or 
Scot,  this  attempt  at  a  forward  movement  of  thought 
began  in  the  ninth  century,  and  in  the  fourteenth  century 
it  ended  with  an  Englishman,  when  William  Occam  led 
his  followers  out  of  their  cloisters  to  the  open  ground 
where  they  breathed  freer  air,  dealt  boldly  with  realities 
of  life,  and  took  part,  as  Englishmen  should,  in  the  whole 
forward  struggle  of  their  day. 

Erigena  died  when  Alfred  was  king  in  England ;  and 
the  decay  of  learning  caused  by  continued  incursions  of 
the  Danes  and  Norsemen,  who  crossed  over  for  plunder 
where  they  could  not  settle,  had  become  now  a  disorganiz- 
ing force.  Monasteries  were  the  schools,  the  hospitals, 
the  centres  of  civilization,  in  that  early  time.  The  reli- 
gious feeling  made  them,  by  constant  endowment  and  gift 
of  treasure,  centres  also  of  wealth.  Wealth  brought  with 
it  temptations,  from  within  to  indolence  and  luxury,  and 
from  without  to  plunder.  There  was  check,  therefore,  to 
the  flow  of  knowledge  at  its  source.  When  Alfred  endeav- 
oured to  revive  the  monastery  schools,  Latin  had  fallen 
into  disuse  as  the  living  tongue  of  the  republic  of  letters, 
and  one  part  of  his  work  was  the  translation  into  English 
of  these  Latin  books  which  he  desired  especially  to  keep 
alive  as  aids  to  the  intellectual  culture  of  his  people. 

After  Alfred's  time,  men  with  less  breadth  of  thought 
sought  to  continue  his  work,  and  chief  reliance  was  placed 
by  Ethelwoid  and  Dunstan  upon  the  enforcement  of  a 
strict  monastic  rule.  Ethelwoid,  when  Bishop  of  Winches- 
ter, had  for  a  chief  teacher  in  his  diocese  one  of  his  old 
pupils  at  Abingdon,  iElfric,  known  as  the   grammarian. 


6  A   GLAXCE  AT  THE  PAST 

He  aided  as  grammarian  in  the  attempt  to  revive  Latin 
studies,  and  wrote  Homilies  on  the  days  celebrated  in  the 
service  of  the  church.  Long  afterwards,  when  war  of 
creeds  divided  England,  the  Homilies  of  JElfric  were  re- 
ferred to  as  evidences  of  an  uncorrupted  form  of  doctrine 
in  the  Anglosaxon  church. 

An  undertone  of  religious  verse  in  legends  of  saints, 
dialogues  between  Soul  and  Body,  mythical  properties  of 
animals  turned  to  religious  allegory,  by  poets  who  ex- 
pressed in  quiet  strains  the  feeling  of  the  country,  ran 
through  the  literature  of  the  Ansrlosaxon  times. 

The  Norman  Conquest  in  the  year  1066  brought  no  new 
race  into  the  land.  A  difference  of  social  conditions  had 
developed  differently  in  England  and  France  the  common 
elements  of  character,  and  thus,  after  the  Norman  Con- 
quest, the  life  of  England  was  enriched  with  new  political 
and  social  forms,  which  prepared  the  way  for  a  more  defi- 
nite expression  of  those  natural  antagonisms  of  opinion  by 
which  a  free  society  sifts  truth  from  error. 

It  is  most  good  that  men  should  openly  and  generously 
differ  in  opinion.  All  admit  that  what  we  have  we  owe  to 
the  thought  of  the  wisest  in  successive  generations  of  the 
past.  All  admit  that  their  own  generation  has  to  recon- 
struct what  is  outworn  and  contribute  its  own  share  of 
labour  for  the  future.  But  each  of  us  is,  by  bias  of  mind, 
so  constituted  that  his  opinions  run  more  readily  upon  one 
of  these  lines  than  upon  the  other.  One  form  of  mind 
dwells  more  on  the  defence  and  conservation  of  those  in- 
stitutions which  have  been  transmitted  to  us  by  the  wisdom 
of  the  past,  defers  more  to  established  authority,  and  needs 
more  evidence,  before  it  can  admit  the  fitness  of  a  change. 
The  other  form  of  mind  defers  less  to  established  authority, 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  7 

and  is  disposed  indeed  for  a  bold  search  after  new  aids  to 
progress.  In  every  matter  of  opinion,  social,  civil  or  reli- 
gious, argument  comes  of  action  on  each  other  by  these  two 
natural  tendencies  of  thought.  The  best  of  our  machines 
is  useless  while  at  rest,  and  this  diversity  of  mind  among  us 
belongs  to  the  working  of  that  loom  not  made  with  hands 
on  which  the  raw  material  of  human  life  is  spun  into  a 
thousand  forms  of  truth.  In  English  politics  of  the  Reign 
of  Victoria  one  of  these  natural  tendencies  of  thought  is 
named  Conservative,  the  other  Liberal.  "  Conservative  " 
is  a  good,  defining  name ;  but  the  other  name  should  be 
"  Reformer." 

There  had  been  established  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  pro- 
viding for  brief  annual  record  of  the  chief  incidents  in  the 
story  of  the  land.  A  general  habit  of  keeping  monastic 
chronicles,  with  more  or  less  reference  to  larger  incidents 
of  history  beyond  monastic  bounds,  was  introduced  into 
England  by  the  Normans.  A  marked  feature  in  such 
Chronicles  is  the  quiet  way  in  which  their  writers,  who 
were  usually  monks  drawn  from  the  lower  or  the  middle 
classes,  spoke  of  public  events ;  not  as  they  gave  occasion 
for  suggestions  of  the  pomp  of  tournament,  the  grace  of 
fair  ladies,  flutter  of  flag  and  sound  of  trumpet,  but  as  they 
touched  the  substantial  welfare  of  the  people. 

The  twelfth  century  was  a  time  of  vigorous  development 
among  the  nations.  Within  a  period  nearly  corresponding 
to  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Second  in  England,  there  was 
shaped  for  Germany  the  Nibelungenlied,  for  Spain  the  ro- 
mance of  the  Cid  Campeador,  and  out  of  Flemish  national 
life  sprang  the  famous  satire  of  Reinaert,  Reynard  the  Fox. 
There  was  a  like  tendency  in  the  literature  of  France,  and 
in  England  those  were  days  of  the  first  development  of 


8  A    GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

Arthurian  Romance.  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  matched  the 
chronicles  of  England  with  a  chronicle  of  the  old  British 
kings,  and  crowned  the  race  of  British  heroes  with  an 
Arthur  upon  whom  at  once  imagination  fastened.  Thus 
there  welled  forth  from  among  the  dry  ground  of  chroni- 
cles the  first  spring  of  romance  in  English  literature. 

Arthurian  romances,  brought  suddenly  into  fashion, 
reflected,  in  bright  picturesque  forms,  at  first  chiefly  the 
animal  life  of  the  time.  But  Walter  Map,  an  Archdeacon 
and  a  chaplain  to  Henry  II.,  put  a  soul  into  their  flesh. 
From  that  day  to  this  King  Arthur,  as  the  'mythical 
romance  hero  of  England,  has  been  associated  through- 
out English  literature  with  the  deep  religious  feeling  of 
the  country. 

In  the  reign  also  of  Henry  the  Second,  the  King's  con- 
test with  Becket  stirred  the  question  of  the  limit  of  the 
Pope's  authority,  as  it  concerned  the  king.  As  it  con- 
cerned the  people,  church  authority  of  every  form  was 
at  the  same  time  brought  into  question  by  the  effects  of 
wealth  and  luxury  upon  the  church. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  in  the  reign 
of  King  John,  there  was  revival  in  England  of  a  literature 
in  the  language  of  the  land.  Layamon,  who  read  services 
of  the  church  near  Bewdley,  turned  Geoffrey  of  Mon- 
mouth's chronicle,  with  new  additions  to  its  legend  of 
King  Arthur,  into  a  long  English  poem.  The  "  Ormu- 
lum,"  named  after  brother  Orme  its  writer,  endeavoured 
to  give  to  the  people,  in  pleasant  rhythmical  form,  the 
series  of  gospels  for  the  year,  with  a  short  homily  upon 
each,  for  their  instruction  in  religion.  "  The  Land  of 
Cockaygne,"  —  Kitchen  Land,  —  was  a  satire  on  the  cor- 
ruption of  religious  orders.     It  painted  a  monks'  Paradise 


OF  ENGLISn  LITERATURE.  9 

of  fleshly  delight,  which  was  to  be  reached  only  by  wad- 
ing for  seven  years  in  filth  of  swine. 

Those  evils  which  gave  rise  to  such  a  satire,  and  the 
effect  they  had  upon  the  people,  caused  Francis  of  Assisi 
and  the  Spaniard  Dominic  to  found  the  orders  of  Francis- 
cans and  Dominicans  for  strenuous  labour  to  arrest  decay 
within  the  Church.  The  Franciscans  were  to  go  poor 
among  the  poor  as  brothers,  helping  them  to  purity  of 
life.  The  Dominicans  were  banded  to  maintain  the  purity 
of  doctrine  in  the  Church.  Exclusion  of  books  forced  the 
Franciscans  to  look  with  their  own  eyes  upon  nature,  and 
rescued  them  from  bondage  to  conventional  opinion.  In 
the  year  1224  Robert  Grosseteste,  a  learned  Suffolk  man, 
who  afterwards,  as  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  led  opposition  to 
the  Pope's  misuse  of  Church  patronage  in  England,  be- 
came the  first  provincial  of  the  Franciscans  at  Oxford. 
Roger  Bacon,  born  in  Somersetshire  in  1214,  with  natural 
impulses  that  caused  him  to  spend  his  patrimony  in  pur- 
suit of  knowledge  by  aid  of  books  and  observation  and 
experiment,  became  a  Franciscan  friar  and,  withdrawn 
from  use  of  books,  acquired  a  scientific  knowledge  far 
beyond  that  of  his  age.  The  results  of  his  life's  study 
were  poured  out  at  the  bidding  of  the  Pope  within  eigh- 
teen months  of  the  years  1268  and  1269. 

Dante  was  then  a  child  three  or  four  years  old.  The 
sweet  singing  of  Southern  Europe,  too  much  separated 
from  the  active  energies  of  life,  had  dwelt  upon  love  as  a 
conventional  theme,  treated  by  courtly  poets  with  more 
care  for  the  music  of  language  than  for  living  truth  of 
thought.  The  monasteries  still  claimed  to  be  centres  of 
culture,  and  if  the  monks,  vowed  to  celibacy,  might  not 
sing,  like  other  men,  of  love  which  was  accounted  the  one 


10  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

noble  theme,  they  could  adapt  the  fashion  to  their  use, 
and  tell  the  world  that  when  they  sang  a  lady's  praise,  the 
lady  was  the  Church,  the  Virgin,  or  some  object  of  heav- 
enly regard.  Habitual  symbolism  among  many  fathers 
of  the  Church  had  helped  churchmen  with  a  previous 
training  to  this  use  of  allegory.  The  ingenuity  of  double 
sense  added  a  charm  to  verse  making,  and  taste  for  alle- 
gory spread.  Guillaume  de  Lorris,  a  troubadour  in  the 
valley  of  the  Loire,  began,  during  the  first  thirty  years  of 
the  century,  an  allegorical  Romance  of  the  Rose,  that  he 
left  unfinished;  and  between  the  years  1270  and  1282, 
when  Dante  was  a  boy  from  five  to  seventeen  years  old, 
Jean  de  Meung  finished  it.  Jean  de  Meung  put  so  much 
of  the  bolder  spirit  of  his  time  into  the  manner  of  his 
finishing,  with  satire  against  corruption  in  the  Church  and 
in  Societv,  that  the  Romance  of  the  Rose  henceforth 
acquired  wide  fame  and  influence  beyond  the  borders  of 
its  native  France. 

By  Dante,  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio  there  was  developed 
throughout  Europe  a  new  sense  of  Literature  raised  into 
an  art.  When  Dante  died  in  1321,  aged  fifty-six,  Petrarch 
was  a  youth  of  seventeen,  Boccaccio  was  eight  years  old, 
and  the  four  great  English  writers  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury were  yet  unborn.  These  writers,  Geoffrey  Chaucer, 
William  Langland,  John  Gower,  and  John  Wiclif,  seem 
to  have  been  all  born  within  the  ten  or  twelve  years  fol- 
lowing the  death  of  Dante.  In  the  year  1349,  when  the 
Black  Death,  the  greatest  of  the  Pestilences  of  the  Four- 
teenth Century,  spread  into  England,  Chaucer,  Gower, 
Wiclif,  and  Langland  were  young  men ;  Petrarch  was 
about  forty-five  —  his  Laura  was  among  the  victims  of 
that  plague  —  and  Boccaccio  thirty-six  years  old. 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  11 

These  pestilences  meant  that  although  literature  was 
advancing,  there  was  no  advance  whatever  towards  knowl- 
edge of  the  laws  of  health.  Famine  as  usual  preceded 
pestilence.  In  Florence,  in  April  1347,  ninety-four  thou- 
sand twelve-ounce  loaves  of  bread  were  daily  given  to  the 
poor  to  meet  the  urgent  need.  Children  were  dying  of 
hunger  in  their  mothers'  arms.  Plague  spreading  from 
the  East  was  already  in  Cyprus,  Sicily,  Marseilles  and 
some  of  the  Italian  seaport  towns.  In  January  1348  it 
broke  upon  Avignon,  where  the  Rhone  was  consecrated 
by  the  Pope  that  bodies  might  be  thrown  into  it.  In  one 
burial  ground  in  London  fifty  thousand  corpses  of  the 
plague  stricken  are  said  to  have  been  placed  in  layers  in 
large  pits.  We  do  not  trust  these  numbers,  but  trust  the 
impression  that  they  give.  It  is  said  that  by  the  Black 
Death  Europe  lost  twenty-five  million  of  her  inhabitants. 
Into  the  crowd  of  the  plague  stricken  at  the  Hotel  Dieu, 
when  the  deaths  were  five  hundred  a  day,  high  hearted 
women  entered  as  Sisters  of  Charity;  and  as  they  died 
at  their  posts,  there  was  never  a  want  of  others  to  come 
in  and  take  their  places.  Merchants,  struck  with  terror, 
offered  their  wealth  to  the  church.  The  deaths  of  own- 
ers of  estates  brought  wealth  to  the  religious  houses,  and 
made  lawyers  busy.  But  above  all,  the  Plague  believed 
to  be  a  scourge  for  sin,  was  looked  upon  as  God's  call  to 
repentance.  Another  sweep  of  pestilence,  again  preceded 
by  famine,  crossed  England  in  1360,  another  in  1373,  an- 
other in  1382.  It  was  said  that  of  the  plague  of  1349  the 
poor  were  the  chief  victims,  but  that  the  plague  of  1360 
struck  especially  the  rich.  It  is  from  this  plague  that  one 
of  the  great  songs  of  England  in  the  Fourteenth  Century, 
Langland's  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman,  had  its  origin. 


12  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

William  Langland  was  associated,  although  not  as 
ordained  priest,  with  the  service  of  the  Church ;  he  was 
well  read ;  and  he  was  a  religious  poet  who  felt  deeply 
the  griefs  of  the  people.  In  the  old  unrhymed  alliterative 
measure,  then  still  familiar  to  the  many,  Langland  pro- 
vided the  wandering  reciters  of  song  and  tale  at  fairs  and 
festivals  and  by  the  wayside,  wherever  there  was  large 
resort  of  men,  with  a  great  allegory  of  the  search  after  a 
higher  life.  This  was  "  the  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman,"  in 
which  Piers  the  Plowman,  first  appearing  as  one  with 
the  poor  men  of  the  earth,  becomes  identified  with  Christ 
himself.  The  pestilences  that  to  Langland  seemed  to  be 
God's  warnings  against  sin,  spoke  through  his  poem  with 
a  deeply  human  voice  of  sympathy.  He  clothed  the 
seven  sins  in  homely  shapes  of  a  life  familiar  to  the  peo- 
ple, showed  them  repentant,  sent  them  forth  in  search  of 
the  better  life  that  would  bring  better  days  to  England, 
and  he  taught  that  Christ  in  the  person  of  Piers  Plowman 
brought  pardon  from  God  to  those  who  should  do  well. 

What  Langland  sought  in  his  own  way,  John  Wiclif 
also  battled  for.  Langland  was  not  a  follower  of  Wiclif. 
They  were  men  of  like  age  and  of  like  aim,  with  energies 
that  had  been  stirred  by  the  same  social  conditions;  fellow 
workers,  each  with  his  own  well  marked  individuality. 
In  Wiclif,  as  in  others,  the  first  efforts  at  reformation  of 
the  Church  touched  rather  discipline  than  doctrine.  But 
the  end  sought  by  reformation  of  the  teachers  was  the 
better  guidance  of  the  taught,  the  lifting  of  the  people 
out  of  brutish  life.  To  more  than  one  man,  at  this  time, 
the  conviction  came  that  the  Bible  speaking  to  the  people 
with  its  own  full  voice  in  their  own  tongue  would  be  the 
best   of  guides.     Work  of  translation,  begun   here   and 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  13 

there,  was  shared  and  organized  by  Wiclif  so  effectually 
that  four  years  before  his  death  he  and  his  fellow  labour- 
ers had  completed  a  translation  of  the  Bible  into  English. 
Energy  of  thought  in  the  Fourteenth  Century  struck 
with  especial  force  upon  the  Papacy  after  the  removal  of 
the  Popes  to  Avignon  in  1309.  A  Pope  who  was  depend- 
ent on  the  King  of  France  could  not  be  accepted  as  the 
master  of  the  King  of  England.  He  was  unwelcome  to 
Englishmen  in  days  when  the  personal  ambitions  of  our 
Kings  put  enmity  between  the  French  and  English.  The 
seventy  years  of  a  Papal  Court  at  Avignon  were  imme- 
diately followed  by  forty  years  of  a  schism  in  the  Papacy. 
Griefs  of  the  untaught  poor,  famine  that  was  forerunner 
of  another  pestilence,  grinding  taxation  for  wars  then 
alike  unsuccessful  and  unjust,  led  in  England  to  the  Jack 
Straw  rebellion  of  1381.  The  discords  of  that  year 
caused  Chaucer's  friend  John  Gower,  a  Kentish  gentle- 
man of  good  estate,  to  write  in  Latin  his  best  poem, 
"  Vox  Clamantis  "  the  Voice  of  one  Crying.  Social  miser- 
ies, he  argued,  do  not  come  by  chance,  but  are  results  of 
wrong.  Of  the  ignorant  mob  he  felt  only  that,  because 
of  its  ignorance,  it  must  be  kept  in  subjection  by  superior 
force.  He  went  through  all  the  orders  of  society  from 
Pope  to  ploughman,  to  point  out  the  misdeeds  of  each ; 
and  he  set  out  upon  his  work  with  a  prayer  that  summed 
up  what  should  be  the  aim  of  every  English  writer :  "  Let 
my  verse  not  be  turgid,  let  there  be  in  it  no  word  of 
untruth;  may  each  word  answer  to  the  thing  it  speaks 
of  pleasantly  and  fitly,  may  I  flatter  in  it  no  one,  and 
seek  in  it  no  praise  above  the  praise  of  God.  Give  me 
that  there  shall  be  less  vice  and  more  virtue  for  my  speak- 
ing."    But  the  one  form  of  education  by  which  Gower 


14  A   GLANCE  AT  TEE  PAST 

and  all  his  contemporaries  sought  to  raise  the  people,  was 
onl}T  attainable  through  reformation  of  the  clergy.  The 
only  education  dwelt  upon  as  means  of  fixing  the  un- 
stable multitude,  and  making  it  into  the  strong  foun- 
dation of  a  happy  commonwealth,  was  that  which  is  given 
to  his  people  by  the  worthy  spiritual  guide.  The  desire 
was  to  realize  religion ;  to  humanize  all  lives  by  bringing 
them  into  accord  with  the  pure  Christian  ideal.  The  first 
condition  of  a  higher  culture  was  repair  of  the  broken 
plough.  In  the  Fourteenth  Century,  therefore,  and 
throughout  the  Fifteenth  and  Sixteenth,  there  was  earnest 
labour  for  the  Reformation  of  the  Church. 

The  two  greatest  English  poets,  Chaucer  and  Shake- 
speare, taught  only  through  images  of  life.  Towards  the 
close  of  the  Fourteenth  Century,  Gower  in  his  English 
poem,  the  "  Confessio  Amantis,"  set  a  collection  of  tales 
in  a  light  framework.  He  so  arranged  them  in  eight 
books  that  they  were  seven  distinct  volleys  of  shot  against 
the  seven  deadly  sins,  and  one  against  misuse  of  royal 
power.  When  Chaucer  also  followed  the  example  set  by 
Boccaccio's  "  Decameron,"  his  tales  were  as  far  as  Shake- 
speare's plays  from  any  profession  of  didactic  purpose. 
But  like  Shakespeare,  Chaucer  used  the  highest  gifts  of 
genius  so  that  he  might  teach  while  he  delighted.  Nobody 
who  has  read  Chaucer  through,  or  who  has  fairly  read 
through  only  the  Canterbury  Tales,  can  look  upon  Chau- 
cer as  an  animal  poet.  No  man  before  Shakespeare  dwelt 
as  Chaucer  dwelt  upon  the  beauty  of  a  perfect  woman- 
hood, the  daisy  was  for  him  its  emblem,  with  its  supposed 
power  to  heal  inward  bruises,  its  modest  beauty,  its  heart 
of  gold,  and  its  white  crown  of  innocence.  He  is  not 
less  deeply  because  unaffectedly  religious.     His  absolute 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  15 

kindliness  made  part  of  his  perception  of  the  highest 
truth,  and  it  increased  greatly  the  power  of  his  teach- 
ing. 

Lydgate  and  Occleve  at  the  beginning  of  the  Fifteenth 
Century  maintained,  as  far  as  they  had  strength,  the  poet's 
office,  to  delight  and  teach.  But  their  days  were  clouded 
with  political  confusion.  There  is  nothing  in  wars  be- 
tween families  for  the  succession  to  a  throne,  or  in  wars 
of  invasion  for  aggrandizement  of  the  invader,  that  can 
set  a  people  singing,  or  touch  to  the  quick  that  better  part 
of  life  which  speaks  through  a  true  Literature.  It  is  only 
Avar  of  minds,  and  bodies  too  if  need  be,  for  the  truth,  for 
liberty,  for  something  that  true  men  will  rather  die  than 
lose,  which  fetches  out  the  earnest  voice  of  life.  The  Low- 
land Scot,  most  English  of  the  English,  who  was  able  to 
say,  thus  far  and  no  farther,  to  invasions  of  the  Norman 
kings,  did  not  want  poets  at  a  time  when  elsewhere  Eng- 
lish Literature  was  among  the  victims  of  ignoble  strife. 
In  Chaucer's  latter  time  John  Barbour,  Archdeacon  of 
Aberdeen,  had  blended  many  a  touch  of  wisdom  with  a 
strain  of  liberty  in  his  metrical  Life  of  Robert  Bruce,  who 
died  not  fifty  years  before.  The  poem  was  half  written 
in  1375.  In  the  next  century  Blind  Harry,  a  wandering 
minstrel,  with  less  art  though  with  more  appearance  of  art 
in  the  variety  of  measures,  sang  the  romance  of  Wallace. 
When  tales  of  Wallace  were  being  thus  chanted  among 
the  Scots,  Robert  Henryson,  in  1462,  became  a  graduate 
of  the  newly  founded  University  of  Glasgow.  Robert 
Henryson,  who  was  dead  in  1508,  wrote  in  his  "Robin 
and  Makyn  "  the  first  pastoral  in  English  Literature.  He 
moralized  fables  in  verse  with  a  shrewd  Scottish  humour. 
He  wrote  an    earne'STr-sequel  to   Chaucer's  "Troilus  and 


16  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

Cressida,"  and  he  left  to  us  a  small  body  of  thoughtful 
and  religious  poetry.  Before  he  passed  away  there  had 
begun  the  great  development  of  Scottish  song  that  yielded 
in  William  Dunbar  the  next  poet  of  great  mark  after 
Chaucer,  and  in  Sir  David  Lindsay  of  the  Mount  the  Scot- 
tish Poet  of  the  Reformation. 

It  is  noticeable,  however,  that  in  the  middle  of  the  Fif- 
teenth Century,  when  England  was  bleeding  from  the 
wounds  of  Civil  war,  and  the  voice  of  her  Literature  was 
almost  silenced,  there  were  two  writers  who  showed  that 
the  pulse  of  the  nation  had  not  stopped.  Sir  John  For- 
tescue,  who  had  been  Henry  the  Sixth's  Chief  Justice 
and  fought  at  Towton,  went  into  exile  with  his  master. 
Although  himself  cast  out  from  a  country  where  all  seemed 
to  be  discord,  he  compared  in  France,  for  the  instruction 
of  the  young  Prince  who  might  afterwards  be  king  of  Eng- 
land, the  absolutist  forms  of  the  French  monarchy  with 
the  limitations  of  the  power  of  the  king  that  had  grown 
with  the  growth  of  English  law.  Days  even  of  weakness 
and  disorder  had  been  made  occasions  for  confirming  and 
extending  those  constitutional  rights  upon  which  Fortes- 
cue  dwelt.  The  other  writer  through  whom  we  feel  that, 
in  those  days  of  civil  war,  however  blood  might  flow,  the 
heart  of  England  was  still  beating,  is  Reginald  Pecock. 
The  followers  of  Wiclif,  known  as  Lollards,  though  with- 
out competent  leaders,  were  battling  still  for  a  reformed 
Church.  Forerunners  of  the  later  Puritans,  they  desired 
the  clergy  to  look  only  to  the  Bible,  to  build  up  the  church 
by  founding  it  and  all  its  ordinances  upon  scripture  only 
as  the  Word  of  God,  and  to  avoid  human  tradition  and 
vain  ceremonies  that  had,  for  many,  turned  religion  into 
superstition.     The  Bishops  were  blamed  for  want  of  dili- 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  17 

gence  in  preaching ;  wealth  of  the  clergy  was  condemned, 
and  their  encouragement  of  war,  of  oaths,  of  pilgrimages 
to  the  shrines  of  saints,  invocation  of  saints,  veneration  of 
relics  and  of  images,  church  ornaments  and  bells  and  ban- 
ners. Reginald  Pecock,  a  busy  writer  and  a  Welshman, 
who  became,  in  the  middle  of  the  Fifteenth  Century, 
Bishop  of  Chichester,  produced  in  English  a  large  book 
of  argument  with  the  Bible  Men  called  "  the  Repressor  of 
Over  Much  Blaming  of  the  Clergy."  He  came  down 
among  the  people  and  in  their  own  tongue  sought  by 
reason  to  convince  them  of  what  he  believed  to  be  their 
errors.  He  opposed  constant  appeal  to  the  Bible  on  indif- 
ferent matters  of  Church  discipline  because  God  had  given 
to  men  Reason  to  determine  such  things  for  themselves. 
Scripture,  he  said,  was  designed  for  revelation  to  man  of 
that  which  was  beyond  and  above  reason.  Both  were 
gifts  from  the  same  source  of  all  truth  ;  Reason  and  Faith, 
therefore,  never  really  contradict  each  other.  First  prin- 
ciples on  which  to  base  the  later  doctrines  of  Religious 
Liberty  were  in  the  writings  of  this  Bishop,  whom  the 
temporal  and  spiritual  Lords  of  his  own  day  immured  for 
life  in  Thorney  Abbey.  They  condemned  him  as  one  who, 
by  preferring  Reason  to  Authority  in  dealing  with  the 
people,  had  offered  to  break  down  the  strongest  buttress 
of  the  Church. 

But  throughout  Europe  in  the  Fifteenth  Century  there 
was  a  gathering  of  forces  that  gave  impulse  to  the  forward 
struggle.  The  fall  of  Constantinople  in  May  1453  scat- 
tered the  learned  Greeks,  who  taught  abroad  the  ancient 
literature  of  their  country  and  introduced  Greek  studies 
into  Europe.  Plato  then  came  in  aid  of  the  battle  against 
sensuality  within  the  Church.     Two  years  after  the  fall  of 


18  A    GLANCE  AT  TUE  PAST 

Constantinople  Gutenberg  and  Faust  completed  the  first 
printed  book.  The  sack  of  Mayence,  in  1462,  by  its  Arch- 
bishop Adolphus,  dispersed  the  printers,  and  with  them 
the  secrets  of  their  craft.  Printing  presses  then  were 
established  in  some  of  the  chief  cities  of  Europe.  When 
William  Caxton  introduced  the  art  of  printing  into  Eng- 
land, and  settled  among  the  hand  copyists  at  Westminster, 
he  seemed  only  to  be  cheapening  a  luxury.  His  first  pub- 
lications, in  and  after  the  year  1474,  were  such  as  the  rich 
men,  who  alone  could  afford  books,  might  be  disposed  to 
buy.  But  it  was  not  long  before  full  use  was  found  for 
the  new  means  of  carrying  on  that  conflict  of  thought  by 
which  society  moves  forward  to  the  higher  life  that  even 
now  is  attained  only  by  a  few.  Besides  these  forces  there 
came  also  in  aid  of  the  new  birth  of  intellectual  energy  in 
Europe,  the  discovery  of  the  New  World.  Columbus  went 
to  sea  about  the  time  when  the  printers  of  Mayence  were 
first  scattered. 

While  men's  imaginations  were  still  being  emboldened 
by  these  great  discoveries,  Sir  Thomas  More  wrote  his 
"  Utopia."  Somewhere  about  the  New  World  was  the 
Island  of  Utopia  —  Nusquama — Nowhere — discovered  by 
one  of  the  voyagers  whom  Amerigo  Vespucci  left  behind, 
and  whom  More  feigned  that  he  had  met  at  Antwerp. 
Wretched  wars  of  ambition  made  in  these  days  the  chief 
business  of  the  chief  sovereigns  of  Europe.  More,  writing 
part  of  his  little  book  in  Brussels  while  a  fellow  lodger 
with  his  friend  Erasmus,  set  forth  under  a  transparent 
veil  his  condemnation  of  political  and  social  evils  in  the 
England  of  his  day,  with  playful  aids  to  the  perception  of 
what  a  civilized  community  might  be. 

On  the  31st  of  October  1517,  Martin  Luther  affixed  to 


OF  ENGLISLT  LITERATURE.  19 

the  church  door  at  Wittenberg  his  95  theses  against  Indul- 
gences. Wiclif  and  Huss  were  dead,  but  there  remained 
the  cause  they  battled  for.  Luther  was  turned  to  rebel- 
lion against  the  Pope's  authority  by  the  Pope's  rebellion 
against  Reason  and  Scripture.  The  papal  legate  Cajetan 
gave  up  attempt  to  bring  Luther  back  into  the  state  of 
passive  obedience,  and  said,  "  I  will  not  speak  with  the 
beast  again  ;  he  has  deep  eyes,  and  his  head  is  full  of 
speculation."  Luther's  translation  of  the  Bible  into  Ger- 
man set  William  Tyndale  upon  the  like  work  in  England. 
Tyndale's  New  Testament  was  printed  at  Cologne  and 
Worms  in  1525,  at  Antwerp  in  1526,  and  smuggled  into 
England,  with  his  tracts  in  aid  of  Church  Reform.  In 
1536  Tyndale  was  strangled  and  burnt  at  Antwerp.  His 
last  words  were  :  "  Lord,  open  the  King  of  England's 
eyes!  y  In  1537  Miles  Coverdale  produced  the  first  com- 
plete translation  of  the  Bible  into  English,  and  it  was 
admitted  into  England.  Foundations  of  the  future  church 
establishment  in  England  were  then  being  laid.  In  May 
1533,  a  few  months  after  his  private  marriage  with  Anne 
Boleyn  King  Henry  VIII.  was  divorced  from  Katherine  of 
Aragon.  Their  daughter  Mary,  afterwards  Queen  Mary 
of  England,  was  then  seventeen  years  old.  In  the  follow- 
ing September  Elizabeth  was  born.  Henry  VIII.  having 
quarrelled  with  Rome  over  the  personal  question  of  his 
divorce  from  Katherine,  in  November  1534  the  English 
Parliament  made  the  King  absolute  master  of  the  Church 
of  England.  In  1535,  John  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
when  an  old  man  of  80,  was  beheaded  because  he  could 
not  take  oath  of  assent  to  the  king's  new  position  in  the 
English  Church.  Fisher  was  beheaded  on  the  22d  of  June, 
and  Sir  Thomas  More,  for  a  like  reason,  on  the  6th  of 


20  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

July.  In  the  same  year  Hugh  Latimer  was  made  Bishop 
of  Worcester.  Coverdale's  Bible  was  then  in  print,  but 
it  was  dedicated  to  the  king's  "most  dearest  just  wife 
Anne,"  and  as  Anne  Boleyn  was  beheaded  in  May  1536, 
before  these  Bibles  had  been  issued,  the  issue  was  delayed 
for  the  removal  of  the  dedication.  In  1537  the  king's 
next  wife,  Jane  Seymour,  died  after  the  birth  of  her  son 
Edward.  While  attempts  were  being  made  to  secure  an 
English  version  of  the  Bible  free  from  the  objection  laid 
against  Tyndale's  of  Lutheranism  in  the  manner  of  trans- 
lation, the  English  Church  Reformers  were  still  active  in 
controversy.  In  1539  —  the  year  also  of  Thomas  Crom- 
well's final  act  for  the  dissolution  of  Abbeys  —  the  king, 
as  Head  of  the  Church,  declared  for  all  the  practices 
against  which  objection  was  most  frequent.  The  king's 
"  Act  abolishing  Diversity  of  Opinion  "  caused  Latimer  to 
resign  his  bishopric  and  he  was  silenced  during  the  rest  of 
Henry  VIII's  reign. 

Meanwhile  upon  the  continent  the  zeal  of  Calvin  had 
been  added  to  the  zeal  of  Luther.  On  the  20th  of  Novem- 
ber 1541  Calvin's  Ecclesiastical  and  Moral  Code  estab- 
lished at  Geneva  what  was  called  "  the  Yoke  of  Christ." 
There  was  free  use  of  authority  to  enforce  doctrine  and 
discipline,  there  as  elsewhere.  The  reading  of  romances 
was  forbidden.  Three  children  were  officially  punished 
for  stopping  outside  the  church  to  eat  cakes  after  service 
had  begun.  In  1568  a  child  was  beheaded  for  having 
struck  her  parents.  A  lad  of  sixteen  was  sentenced  to 
death  for  only  threatening  to  strike  his  mother.  The 
forms  of  earnestness  in  this  and  other  controversies  could 
in  no  man  lie  wholly  outside  the  civilization  of  his  time. 

On  the  28th  of  January  1547  King  Henry  VIII.  died, 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  21 

only  a  few  days  after  he  had  signed  the  death  warrant  of 
one  of  the  best  poets  of  his  reign,  Henry  Howard,  Earl 
of  Surrey.  Though  the  Earl  of  Surrey  had  never  been 
himself  in  Italy,  he  had  joined  his  elder  friend  Sir  Thomas 
"Wyatt  in  adapting  Italian  and  French  verse  measures  to 
the  English  tongue.  Through  them  the  sonnet  found  its 
way  into  English  Literature,  and  it  was  the  Earl  of  Surrey 
who  by  translating  two  books  of  Vergil's  iEneid  into  a 
form  of  blank  verse  then  being  tried  in  Italy,  brought  into 
English  Literature  the  use,  at  first  only  a  slight  use,  of  a 
measure  that  was  developed  afterwards  by  the  genius  of 
Shakespeare  and  Milton  into  the  noblest  instrument  for 
the  expression  of  poetic  thought.  In  Henry  the  Eighth's 
reign  Italian  influence,  winch,  in  the  days  of  Chaucer,  had 
been  influence  only  of  great  writers  on  great  writers,  be- 
came an  influence  of  court  upon  court,  a  spread  of  fashions 
from  the  source  of  fashion. 

The  earnest  undertone  of  English  thought  was  in  the 
fancies  of  the  courtly  poets  who  in  the  latter  part  of  Henry 
the  Eighth's  reign  followed  the  Italian  fashions.  Italians 
claimed  all  the  great  Latin  poets  as  their  ancestors ;  in 
Italy  the  new  foundations  also  of  Modern  Literature  had 
been  laid  by  Dante,  Petrarch,  and  Boccaccio.  The  free 
spirit  from  which  that  new  power  came  was  being  enfee- 
bled by  the  rise  of  tyrannies.  But  the  little  tyrants  played 
at  literature,  wrote  verse,  and  gladly  directed  thoughts  of 
eager  minds  from  questions  of  political  right  to  debate 
over  the  sonnets  of  Petrarch.  It  became  a  courtly  fashion 
to  write  verse,  and  strain  for  ingenious  daintiness  of  speech, 
known  in  England  as  the  Euphuism  of  the  Elizabethan 
time.  Who  could  deny  the  right  of  Italy  to  lead  Europe 
in  Art  and  Literature  ?     Nowhere  else  in  the  world  was 


22  A   GLANCE  AT  TEE  PAST 

the  temper  of  the  artist  so  distinctly  to  be  found.  Ariosto 
produced  his  Orlando  in  1515,  within  Henry  the  Eighth's 
reign,  and  died  in  1533,  the  year  of  the  king's  divorce 
from  Katherine.  Among  the  universities  and  courts  of 
Italy  there  was  in  those  days  the  birth  of  the  modern 
drama.  Pastoral  poetry  was  finding  a  new  voice.  Scholar- 
ship was  active.  The  year  of  Luther's  birth  was  the  year 
also  of  the  birth  of  Raffaelle,  and  Ariosto  and  Michael 
Angelo  were  born  within  one  half  year  of  1474-75.  Some 
of  the  verses  written  in  accordance  with  Italian  usage  by 
noblemen  and  gentlemen  of  the  days  of  Henry  the  Eighth, 
Edward  VI.  and  Queen  Mary  were  collected,  together  with 
the  poems  of  the  Earl  of  Surrey  and  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt, 
into  a  book  commonly  known  as  Tottel's  Miscellany.  It 
was  published  a  few  months  before  Elizabeth  became 
Queen.  The  tone  of  these  poems,  although  they  can  be 
playful,  is  never  frivolous.  The  voice  even  of  courtly 
English  song,  in  those  days  of  constant  struggle  over 
essentials  of  the  higher  life,  accords  with  the  spirit  of  a 
little  poem  by  Lord  Vaux,  one  of  the  number  of  the 
courtly  singers : 

"  Our  wealth  leaves  us  at  death,  our  kinsmen  at  the  grave, 
But  virtues  of  the  mind  unto  the  heavens  with  us  we  have. 
Wherefore,  for  virtue's  sake,  I  can  be  well  content 
The  sweetest  time  of  all  my  life  to  deem  in  thinking  spent." 

With  the  advance  of  scholarship  came  also  new  thought 
upon  the  principles  of  education.  At  the  end  of  the  Fif- 
teenth Century,  Grocyn  and  Linacre  had  first  taught 
Greek  at  Oxford.  Among  the  Greek  scholars  at  Oxford 
was  John  Colet,  son  of  a  rich  citizen  of  London.  He 
became   in  1505  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  and  began  in  1510 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  23 

the  spending  of  his  large  private  fortune  on  the  founding 
of  St.  Paul's  School.  Sir  Thomas  Elyot,  a  Suffolk  gentle- 
man, who  served  Henry  VIII.  as  Ambassador,  wrote  both 
upon  Education  and  upon  Management  of  Health.  His 
little  book  called  uthe  Castle  of  Health,"  written  with 
apology  to  the  doctors  for  entering  their  domain,  curiously 
applies  the  medical  knowledge  he  had  picked  up  from 
books  then  of  authority  to  discussion  of  food  and  diet, 
and  throws  light  upon  the  social  customs  of  the  day.  It 
was  published  in  1533,  two  years  later  than  his  book 
called  "the  Governour,"  the  most  enlightened  treatise 
on  the  education  proper  for  a  gentleman  which  had  ap- 
peared up  to  that  time  in  English  Literature.  Records  of 
the  foundations  of  public  schools  bear,  indeed,  clear  wit- 
ness to  the  interest  in  education  that  formed  part  of  the 
new  birth  of  energetic  thought. 

Only  eight  public  schools  were  founded  before  the  reign 
of  Henry  VI.,  one  of  them  being  Winchester  College.  In 
the  reign  of  Henry  VI.,  in  1441,  Eton  was  founded.  In 
the  same  reign  three  other  schools  were  established,  one 
of  them  being  the  City  of  London  School,  which  was 
revived  in  1834.  In  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  four  schools 
were  founded ;  under  Edward  V.  none.  Under  Richard 
III.  there  was  one ;  under  Henry  VII.  there  were  twelve ; 
but  under  Henry  VIII.  the  number  of  new  school  founda- 
tions was  no  less  than  forty-nine.  The  work  went  on  with 
increased  energy  during  the  short  reign  of  Edward  VI. 
when  forty-four  more  schools  were  founded ;  Christ's  Hos- 
pital being  one  of  them.  Twelve  schools  were  founded 
in  the  reign  of  Mary  (there  were  not  more  during  the 
whole  of  the  long  reign  of  George  III.),  and  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  under  Elizabeth,  including  Westminster,  Mer- 


24  A    GLAXCE  AT   THE  PA>T 

chant  Tavlors',  and  Ru^bv.  Charter-house  was  among  the 
forty-eight  schools  founded  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  Of 
the  whole  number  of  public  schools  founded  from  the  days 
of  King  Alfred  down  to  the  present  day.  one  half  date 
from  some  year  within  the  period  from  the  accession  of 
Henry  VIII.  to  the  death  of  Elizabeth. 

After  the  death  of  Henry  VIII.  there  was  a  child  kingr 
ten  years  old  in  the  hands  of  the  Church  Reformers,  who 
were  energetic  in  securing  the  predominance  of  their 
opinion.  Latimer,  called  into  activity,  preached  before 
Edward  VI.  and  before  the  court  and  people,  with  direct 
zeal  against  all  unreforrned  abuses,  not  without  condem- 
nation of  the  neglect  of  the  plough  in  God's  field  by  the 
prelates.  The  Devil,  he  said,  is  the  busiest  prelate  in 
England,  '-ye  shall  never  find  him  idle.  I  warrant  you."' 
Edward's  short  reign,  from  1547  to  1553.  was  followed  by 
the  reign  of  his  elder  sister.  Queen  Katherine's  daughter, 
Mary.  By  her  the  work  of  the  reformers  was  over- 
thrown, the  new  doctrines  and  service  books  were  de- 
prived of  authority,  strong  efforts  were  made  to  restore 
the  English  Church  to  the  communion  of  Rome,  and  on 
the  16th  of  October.  1555.  Latimer  was  among  those  who 
were  burnt  for  their  opinions.  On  the  17th  of  November 
"  "  "v  Queen  Mary  died  and  her  younger  sister  Elizabeth, 
Anne  Bolevn's  daughter,  then  twentv-five  years  old.  be- 
came  Queen  of  England. 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  25 


CHAPTER  II. 

FROM  THE  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH  TO  THE  REIGX  OF 

ANNE. 

The  whole  population  of  England  in  the  earlier  years 
of  Elizabeth's  reign  was  below  five  million,  and  burning 
questions  of  the  day  caused  wide  divisions  among  these. 
If  the  best  intellect  among  the  people  was  on  the  side 
of  Reformation  in  the  Church,  more  than  half  of  them 
were  inclined  to  stand  in  the  old  ways.  Among  the  Re- 
formers there  was  subdivision.  John  Hooper,  who  was 
burnt  under  Mary,  had  been  sent  to  prison  under  Edward 
by  way  of  conquering  his  strong  objection  to  be  made  a 
Bishop  if,  as  Bishop,  he  must  wear  the  Bishop's  robes. 
The  controversy  upon  vestments  that  has  never  died  out 
of  the  English  Church  of  the  Reformation,  arose,  like 
most  other  occasions  of  debate  within  its  pale,  out  of  the 
way  in  which  the  Reformation  was  established.  On  the 
continent  the  followers  of  Luther  and  Calvin  drew  to 
themselves,  where  they  prevailed,  prince  and  peasant. 
They  had  no  difficulty  in  putting  aside  the  whole  cere- 
monial of  Roman  worship,  and  establishing  the  severe 
simplicity  of  a  Church  based  upon  no  authority  but  that 
of  Scripture.  In  England,  when  the  Pope  was  set  aside 
the  King  replaced  him,  and  opinions  or  usages  ordained 
by  authority,  were  imposed,  with  frequent  abrupt  change, 
upon  a  country  but  half  willing  to  accept  them.     Ed- 


26  A   GLANCE  AT  TEE  PAST 

ward's  advisers  had  been  afraid  to  stir  violence  of  oppo- 
sition by  conspicuous  change  in  the  outward  appearance 
of  church  worship.  The  young  Queen  put  in  the  place  of 
Cardinal  Pole,  Matthew  Parker  as  her  first  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  and  with  his  help  set  about  her  work  of 
establishing  the  Reformation  in  the  Church  of  which  she 
meant  to  be  the  Head.  Matthew  Parker  was  a  pure- 
minded  religious  man,  and  a  good  student  of  the  past. 
The  Queen's  policy,  and  the  Archbishop's,  was  to  find  a 
middle  way  between  the  Roman  Catholics  and  those  re- 
formers against  whom  Pecock  of  old  had  reasoned,  the 
Bible  men,  who  in  Elizabeth's  time  were  first  called  Pre- 
cisians or  Puritans. 

Elizabeth  felt  strongly  the  difficulty  caused  by  discords 
among  her  people.  Spain,  richer  by  discovery  of  the 
New  World,  was  a  strong  combatant  for  Rome,  and  little 
England,  divided  within  itself,  had  from  Spain  certainly, 
perhaps  from  Spain  and  France  together,  an  attack  to 
face.  Her  desire  for  union  among  her  subjects  was  often 
expressed.  It  was  this  feeling  partly  that  caused  her  at 
the  beginning  of  her  reign  to  give  such  emphasis  to  the 
chance  production  of  the  first  tragedy  written  in  English, 
"  Gorboduc,"  or  "  Ferrex  and  Porrex,"  that  its  success 
opened  the  way  to  the  development  of  the  Elizabethan 
drama.  The  story  taken  by  its  young  writers,  Thomas 
Sackville  and  Thomas  Norton,  who  produced  it  as  an 
entertainment  for  Grand  Christmas  at  the  Inner  Temple 
in  1561,  was  unquestionably  chosen  for  expression  of  a 
thought  dominant  at  the  beginning  of  Elizabeth's  reign. 
The  first  of  the  dumbshows  before  the  acts,  set  forth  the 
fable  of  the  bundle  of  sticks  which  being  divided  were 
easily  broken,  but  when  bound   together   withstood   all 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  27 

force  from  without.  When  the  Queen  heard  of  this  play, 
she  commanded  that  it  should  be  acted  again  before  her- 
self and  her  court ;  and  it  was  so  acted,  by  the  gentlemen 
of  the  Inner  Temple,  upon  a  great  decorated  scaffold  in 
the  Queen's  hall  in  Westminster,  on  the  18th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1562  (new  style).  That  was  the  birthday  of  the 
English  drama. 

The  first  English  comedy  had,  indeed,  been  produced 
by  Nicholas  Udall,  the  headmaster  of  Eton  in  Henry  the 
Eighth's  reign,  between  the  years  1534  and  1541,  when  he 
made  a  free  adaptation  into  English  of  the  "  Miles  Glorio- 
sus  "  of  Plautus  as  "  Ralph  Roister  Doister,"  instead  of  giv- 
ing his  boys,  as  usual,  a  Latin  play  to  act.  But  there  was 
nothing  in  the  conditions  under  which  that  comedy  was 
produced  to  cause  wide  imitation.  It  was  otherwise  with 
Gorboduc,  produced  in  London  before  a  large  audience  of 
cultivated  men  trained  in  the  Universities,  and  emphasized 
by  the  Queen's  special  command  for  its  repetition  at  West- 
minster. The  Queen  herself  from  that  time  regularly 
included  plays  written  in  English  among  court  entertain- 
ments, and  they  were  set  forth,  as  masques  had  been,  with 
some  scenery.  On  the  public  stages,  without  scenery,  en- 
tertaining stories  of  all  kinds  were  freely  dramatised  and 
shown  in  action. 

The  delight  in  plays  spread,  but  for  a  long  time  the 
plays  were,  with  few  exceptions,  of  but  little  literary 
worth.  For  the  next  five  and  twenty  years  there  was  no 
great  rise  of  the  English  drama.  At  court  John  Lyly  pro- 
duced daintily  ingenious  pieces,  classical  and  mythological, 
addressed  only  to  cultivated  audiences,  George  Peele  dis- 
played in  a  court-play  the  grace  of  his  genius,  but  on  the 
whole,  it  may  be  said  that  from  the  year  1561-2,  when 


28  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

Gorbodue  was  produced,  to  the  year  1586,  when  it  is  proba- 
ble that  Shakespeare  came  to  London  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
two,  few  plays  of  much  literary  value  were  produced. 
When  William  Shakespeare,  eldest  son  of  John  Shake- 
speare, glover,  of  Stratford  upon  Avon,  left  his  native  town 
to  try  his  fortunes  in  London,  his  father  was  a  broken  man, 
who  had  been  struggling  with  adversity  for  the  last  eight 
years.  William  Shakespeare,  born  on  the  23d  of  April 
1564,  had  married  Anne  Hathaway  towards  the  close  of 
1582.  A  daughter  Susanna  was  born  in  1583,  and  there 
were  twins,  Hamnet  and  Judith,  in  1585.  In  some  way 
he  must  have  been  endeavouring  at  Stratford  to  support  his 
wife  and  his  three  babies,  when  it  occurred  to  him  that  lie 
might  earn  more  in  London  if  he  joined  the  players.  He 
came  as  an  unknown  youth  out  of  Warwickshire,  and 
though  born  to  become  the  world's  greatest  poet,  there 
were  six  years  of  patient  industry  among  the  players,  pren- 
tice years  they  may  be  called,  during  which  he  was  only 
learning  his  art  and  finding  his  way  to  some  little  recogni- 
tion of  his  powers.  But  those  were  the  first  six  years  of 
a  vigorous  development  of  the  Elizabethan  drama.  In 
1586  John  Lyly's  age  was  only  33,  Peele  was  of  about  the 
same  age,  Thomas  Lodge  perhaps  28,  Robert  Greene, 
Henry  Chettle  and  Thomas  Kyd  were  young  men  of  seven 
and  twenty.  Christopher  Marlowe,  a  shoemaker's  son  who 
had  been  sent  to  Cambridge,  foremost  among  them  all  in 
genius,  broke  into  fame  with  his  Tamburlaine  at  the  time 
when  Shakespeare  joined  the  theatres,  and  he  also  was  then 
but  a  young  man  of  twenty-two  or  twenty-three.  During 
the  six  years  when  Shakespeare  was  learning  his  art,  Mar- 
lowe was  running  through  his  brilliant  career,  and  with 
Lodge,  Peelc,  Greene  and  others  was  producing  a  poetic 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  29 

drama,  purely  Elizabethan.  At  the  end  of  those  six  years, 
in  1592,  Shakespeare  had  produced  little  or  nothing  beyond 
such  recasting  of  the  plays  of  other  writers  as  we  have  in 
the  three  parts  of  King  Henry  VI.  Marlowe  was  killed 
in  a  brawl  in  1593.  During  the  six  years  from  Greene's 
death  to  the  year  1598,  Shakespeare  was  putting  forth  his 
power,  and  there  was  no  dramatist  of  mark  to  divide  atten- 
tion with  him.  That  was  his  harvest  time.  Within  that 
time  he  was  producing  about  two  plays  a  year.  A  list  of 
twelve  plays  is  given  in  a  book  of  the  year  1598  —  Meres's 
"  Palladis  Tamia  " —  that  bears  witness  to  the  pre-eminence 
he  had  by  that  time  attained.  He  was  then  thirty -four 
years  old,  and  in  the  preceding  year  had  bought  "New 
Place,"'  one  of  the  best  houses  in  his  native  town.  There 
remained  five  years  of  Elizabethan  Drama  before  the  death 
of  Elizabeth.  In  these  years  Shakespeare  continued  his 
successes.  But  during  these  last  five  years  of  the  reign  a 
group  of  younger  dramatists  became  active.  Ben  Jon- 
son's  earliest  comedy,  "Every  Man  in  His  Humour,"  was 
produced  in  its  current  form  in  1598.  Thomas  Dekker, 
John  Marston,  Thomas  Heywood  also  began  writing  in 
the  last  years  of  Elizabeth,  and  while  Shakespeare  was  still 
writing,  and  rising  in  power,  the  English  Drama  reached 
its  highest  ground  during  the  first  ten  or  twelve  years  of 
the  reign  of  James  the  First.  Ben  Jonson  was  then  at  his 
best,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  joined  the  company  of  writ- 
ers. Ford,  Massinger,  Marston  and  others  were  then  also 
writing.  Causes  of  decay  were  already  at  work,  but  cer- 
tainly the  full  ripeness  of  the  English  drama  was  in  those 
first  years  of  the  reign  of  James  the  First. 

We  turn  back  to  Elizabeth's  endeavour  to  secure  peace 
for  her  Church  by  taking  a  middle  way  between  the  strife 


30  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

of  opposite  opinions.  Archbishop  Parker  died  in  1575 
and  was  succeeded  in  his  see  of  Canterbury  by  Edmund 
Grindal  Archbishop  of  York.  Grindal  was  in  agreement 
with  those  Church  reformers  who  laid  stress  upon  study 
of  the  Bible,  and  faithful  exposition  of  it  by  the  clergy. 
He  encouraged  meetings  of  the  clergy  known  as  Prophe- 
syings  for  debate  upon  difficulties.  The  Queen  held  that 
if  every  minister  considered  it  his  duty  to  study  the  Bible 
for  himself  and  express  in  sermons  his  personal  opinions 
to  his  people,  the  issue  of  this  could  only  be  a  splitting  of 
the  church  into  more  forms  of  various  opinion  than  there 
were  already.  She  commanded  Grindal  to  suppress  the 
prophesyings,  and  to  discourage  independent  preaching. 
She  had  adopted  in  1559  the  "  Book  of  Homilies  "  issued 
in  Edward  the  Sixth's  reign,  and  added  to  this  in  1563  a 
second  Book  of  Homilies.  Here,  she  thought,  were  ser- 
mons enough ;  and  if  these  were  generally  preached  there 
would  be  throughout  the  country  one  harmonious  body  of 
instruction  from  the  pulpits.  Grindal  could  not  obey  the 
Queen's  command  to  restrain  his  clergy  in  their  search 
into  the  Scriptures.  Therefore  in  1577  he  fell  into  dis- 
grace. He  was  restrained  from  exercise  of  the  duties  of 
his  office,  and  was,  until  his  death  in  July,  1583,  Arch- 
bishop only  in  name. 

In  1577  when  Grindal  fell  into  disgrace,  Edmund  Spen- 
ser was  a  young  man  of  about  four  and  twenty ;  he  had 
proceeded  to  his  M.  A.  degree  at  Cambridge  the  }^ear 
before,  and  was  then  possibly  a  tutor  in  the  North  of  Eng- 
land. In  1579  Spenser  was  in  London,  employed  by  the 
Earl  of  Leicester,  the  friend  also  of  Leicester's  nephew, 
Philip  Sidney,  who  was  of  like  age  and  in  many  respects 
like  minded  with  himself.     In  that  year  Spenser  published 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  31 

his  first  little  book  of  verse,  "  The  Shepherd's  Calendar," 
and  in  it  he  not  only  followed  the  French  poet  Clement 
Marot  in  making  pastoral  eclogues  speak  desire  for  a  pure 
church  and  unworldly  ministers,  but  in  doing  so  he  clearly 
took  his  stand  by  the  disgraced  Archbishop  Grindal.  It 
was  a  characteristic  opening  to  Spenser's  literary  life.  No 
man  ever  set  thought  to  sweeter  music,  and  there  are 
some  who  are  content  with  a  mere  enjoyment  of  the  out- 
ward charm  of  Spenser's  manner,  as  if  that  were  all. 
But  Spenser  was  the  Elizabethan  Milton,  Puritan  like 
Milton  with  no  narrow  zeal  against  the  innocent  delights 
of  life,  but  with  grand  yearning  for  the  victory  of  man 
over  all  that  opposed  his  maintenance  of  a  pure  soul  obe- 
dient to  God  in  a  pure  body  obedient  to  the  laws  of  Na- 
ture. Shakespeare  was  universal  poet.  He  saw  through 
the  accidents  of  life  to  its  essentials.  But  the  accidents 
of  his  time  are  never  out  of  Spenser's  verse.  He  is  a 
combatant  poet.  In  his  Faerie  Queene,  never  completed 
though  he  was  at  work  on  it  for  more  than  fourteen  years, 
he  used  a  form  of  romance  in  which  his  time  delighted,  to 
show  man  through  all  his  powers  for  good  battling  his 
way  heavenward.  Aid  of  divine  grace  the  poet  repre- 
sented, in  the  eighth  canto  of  each  book,  by  the  inter- 
vention of  Prince  Arthur  with  his  diamond  shield.  But 
while  "  the  Faerie  Queene  "  might  be  read  simply  as  a 
spiritual  allegory  based  on  Christian  doctrine,  alike  appli- 
cable to  all  times,  the  general  allegory  is  expressed  through 
constant  indication  of  the  particular  battles  of  the  poet's 
own  day.  But  the  strife  it  tells  of,  with  its  aim  un- 
changed whatever  the  shifting  scenery  of  conflict,  lasts 
through  all  generations  till  we  reach  the  crowning  race  of 
man.     The  poet  sought  to  put  his  genius  to  the  highest 


32  A    GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

use.     Amusers  of  a  day  the  day  rewards,  and  their  reward 
ends  with  the  day.     Only  the  helpers  live. 

Spenser  was  a  young  child  when  John  Knox  returned 
from  Geneva  to  Scotland,  and  prospered  so  well  in  his 
work  that,  on  the  17th  of  August  1560,  the  Estates  of 
Scotland  embodied  his  opinions  in  a  Confession  of  Faith 
for  the  Scottish  Church.  The  Scottish  Reformation  was 
established  in  accordance  with  the  view  of  those  who  pre- 
ferred church  government  by  Presbyters  and  Elders  to 
what  they  looked  upon  as  the  less  scriptural  rule  of  Bish- 
ops. The  Puritan  view  that  prevailed  in  Scotland  Avas 
in  England  also  very  strongly  represented.  In  the  third 
year  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  when  it  was  moved  in  Convo- 
cation of  the  Church  that  Saints'  Days  should  be  abol- 
ished ;  that  in  common  prayer  the  minister  should  turn 
his  face  to  the  people ;  that  the  sign  of  the  cross  should 
not  be  used  in  baptism ;  that  kneeling  at  the  sacrament 
should  be  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  minister ;  that  or- 
gans should  be  removed ;  and  that  it  should  suffice  if  the 
minister  wore  the  surplice  once,  provided  that  he  minis- 
tered in  a  comely  garment,  there  was  a  large  majority  of 
members  present,  including  Dean  Nowell,  the  author  of 
the  Church  Catechism  still  in  use,  who  voted  for  these 
concessions.  The  numbers  were  fifty-three  to  thirty-one, 
but  proxies  changed  the  balance  of  the  votes  and  gave  a 
majority  of  one  against  the  Puritans.  Of  eighty-five  edi- 
tions of  the  English  Bible  published  in  Elizabeth's  reign, 
sixty  were  of  the  Geneva  version,  preferred  by  the  Puri- 
tans. The  fierce  spirit  of  conflict  with  Rome  was  not 
wanting  in  its  preface,  nor  indeed  were  Roman  Catholics 
free  in  Elizabeth's  reign  from  cruel  persecution,  even  to 
torture  and  death.     But  the  fierceness,  though  it  might 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  33 

breathe  desire  to  hew  Agag  in  pieces  before  the  Lord, 
was  chiefly  spent  in  spiritual  contest  with  a  cruel  tyranny. 
In  15G7  there  was  established  the  Council  of  Blood  in  the 
Netherlands ;  and  in  February  1568,  all  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Netherlands  were  condemned  to  death,  by  sentence 
of  the  Inquisition,  except  a  few  who  were  named.  In  a 
letter  to  Philip,  Alva  estimated  at  800  the  executions  in 
Passion  week.  In  the  following  year  Edmund  Spenser, 
then  passing  from  school  to  College,  contributed  to  a  reli- 
gious book  published  by  a  refugee  from  the  Low  Coun- 
tries. In  1572  there  was  in  France  the  Massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew.  Spenser  was  then  a  youth  of  about  nine- 
teen, and  young  Philip  Sidney  was  in  Paris  at  the  time. 
In  1573  there  was  the  siege  of  Haarlem,  with  300  women 
among  the  defenders  of  the  town.  At  Haarlem  there  was 
a  treacherous  slaughter  of  two  or  three  thousand ;  three 
hundred  were  tied  back  to  back  and  drowned  in  the  lake. 
Alva,  recalled  by  his  own  wish  in  December,  boasted  that 
he  had  caused  18,600  Netherlanders  to  be  executed.  This 
was  the  year  in  which  Spenser  took  his  Bachelor  of  Arts 
degree.  In  1579  William  of  Nassau  was  nominated 
Stadtholder  of  Holland,  and  in  July  1581  there  was  the 
Dutch  Declaration  of  Independence.  In  1585-7  there  was 
the  expedition  of  Leicester  in  aid  of  the  struggling  Prot- 
estants, during  which,  on  the  22d  of  September,  1586,  Sir 
Philip  Sidney,  noblest  type  of  the  young  Elizabethan 
Englishman,  was  killed  at  Zutphen.  As  Athens  rose  to 
her  highest  point  during  the  struggle  with  Persia,  so  the 
effect  of  this  struggle  for  life  and  freedom  upon  the  Dutch 
provinces  engaged  in  it,  was  their  prosperity.  Old  towns 
became  larger,  and  new  towns  were  built ;  the  ports  of 
the  free  states  were  filled  with  shipping.     In  these  days, 


34  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

Moscow,  Constantinople  and  Paris  were  the  three  largest 
capitals.  The  London  of  Elizabeth,  astir  with  highest 
life,  was  a  town  of  about  160,000  inhabitants.  But  when 
the  whole  power  of  Spain  was  gathered  against  her,  Eng- 
land, stirred  to  the  soul,  poured  out  her  highest  energies. 
The  land  was  full  of  music.  With  the  soul  of  Freedom 
for  its  Prospero, 

This  isle  was  full  of  noises 

Sounds  and  sweet  airs  that  give  delight  and  hurt  not. 

Still  there  were  courtly  singers,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  struck 
boldly  with  his  privateers  at  wealth  of  Spain  upon  the 
seas,  and  sang  praise  of  his  Queen.  Sidney  was  poet,  and 
wrote  a  "Defence  of  Poesy,"  the  first  piece  of  English 
criticism  that  looked  through  the  letter  to  the  spirit  of 
good  literature.  Sidney's  nearest  friends  were  Fulke 
Greville  and  Edward  Dyer,  poets  both.  It  was  Dyer 
who  sang 

My  mind  to  me  a  kingdom  is, 

Such  present  joys  therein  I  find, 
That  it  excels  all  other  bliss 

That  earth  affords  or  grows  by  kind  : 
Though  much  I  want  which  most  would  have, 
Yet  still  my  mind  forbids  to  crave. 

All  the  dramatists  were  lyric  poets,  for  the  greater  must 
include  the  less.  He  is  no  dramatist  who  cannot  write  a 
song.  Not  only  the  greater  poets,  as  Spenser  and  Shake- 
speare, but  singers  like  Thomas  Watson  and  Henry  Con- 
stable who  aspired  no  higher,  scattered  sonnets.  Elizabeth 
herself  wrote  rhymes,  and  so  did  James  of  Scotland.  The 
luxury  of  fancy  spent  itself  on  dress,  and  played  ingenious 
tricks  upon  language,  following  Italian  example  that  then 


OF  ENGLISn  LITERATUIiE.  35 

spread  through  all  the  literature  of  Europe.  But  the 
strain  for  antithesis,  alliteration  and  far-fetched  ingenuity 
of  simile,  was  nowhere  so  pleasantly  successful  as  in 
England,  where  it  took  its  name  of  Euphuism  from  the 
title  of  a  book  of  John  Lyly's.  And  Lyly's  "Euphues," 
published  in  1579,  while  written  in  the  dainty  fashion  that 
was  to  make  it  acceptable,  was  deeply  earnest  in  its  pur- 
pose. It  sought  to  enforce  among  the  rich  such  care  for 
education  as  had  been  shown  in  1570  by  Roger  Ascham's 
"Schoolmaster,"  —  the  next  famous  book  upon  education, 
after  Sir  Thomas  Elyot's  "  Governour," —  and  a  regard  for 
religion  not  enfeebled  by  the  lighter  fashions  of  the  day. 

Through  all  home  discords,  fellowship  in  a  common 
danger  from  without  held  England  and  Elizabeth  in  strong 
accord  until  after  the  defeat  of  the  Spanish  armada. 
Struggle  between  the  two  different  types  of  thought,  which 
had  arranged  nations  of  Europe  into  opposite  camps,  be- 
came then  less  urgent  on  a  European  question,  and  atten- 
tion was  transferred  to  the  home  controversies.  These 
also  turned  chiefly  upon  questions  of  holding  by  author- 
ity and  the  traditions  of  the  past,  or  giving  a  new  range 
to  thought  and  building  for  the  future.  The  Queen  also 
was  unmarried  and  had  no  direct  heir  to  her  throne. 
Of  more  than  twelve  possible  claimants  to  the  succession 
she  would  not  name  one.  It  was  enough  for  her  that 
quiet  arrangements  were  made  to  secure  the  throne  after 
her  death  to  James  of  Scotland.  With  many  claimants  to 
the  throne  and  no  declared  successor,  it  was  commonly 
feared  that  the  divided  land  would  be  again  weakened  by 
civil  war.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  two  best  heroic 
poems  of  Elizabeth's  later  time  made  it  their  theme  to 
paint  the  misery  of  civil  war.     Daniel  published,  in  1595 


36  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

and  succeeding  years,  his  poem  on  "the  Civil  Wars  of 
Lancaster  and  York."  Drayton  followed  in  1596  with  his 
poem  on  "the  Lamentable  Civil  Wars  of  Edward  the 
Second  and  the  Barons."  Even  Shakespeare  had  begun 
in  those  latter  days  with  work  upon  plays  that  had  civil 
war  for  their  theme.  The  three  Parts  of  Henry  VI.  were 
probably  produced  in  1592,  and  a  bad  version  of  the  second 
of  these  plays  was  printed  in  1594  as  "the  First  Part  of  the 
Contention  betwixt  the  Houses  of  York  and  Lancaster." 
Thomas  Lodge  also,  among  the  dramatists,  dealt  with  the 
same  theme  when  he  produced  his  play  of  "  the  Wounds 
of  Civil  War,  lively  set  forth  in  the  true  tragedies  of 
Marius  and  Sylla,"  first  printed  in  1594. 

Under  James  the  First  there  was  not  only,  during  the 
first  ten  or  twelve  years  of  the  reign,  the  time  of  the  full 
ripeness  of  the  English  drama,  preceding  the  several  stages 
of  its  swift  decay,  but  the  energies  aroused  under  Eliza- 
beth gave  impulse  to  a  great  advance  of  thought  in  the 
domain  of  Science.  Francis  Bacon  was  about  three  years 
older  than  Shakespeare,  whom  he  outlived  ten  years. 
Bacon  lived  through  the  whole  of  the  reign  of  James  I., 
which  contains  all  his  maturest  work.  He  had  not  thriven 
to  his  mind  in  Elizabeth's  reign  ;  but  he  rose  rapidly  under 
James.  He  lived  by  law  and  loved  philosophy.  As  lawyer 
Bacon  rose  to  be  Lord  Chancellor,  and  as  philosopher  he 
gave  the  strongest  impulse  to  a  sound  method  of  experi- 
mental search  into  the  secrets  of  Nature.  His  dispassion- 
ate experimental  method  failed  when  applied  to  life.  The 
emotions  have  their  part  with  intellect  and  will  in  shap- 
ing human  action,  and  on  critical  occasions  Bacon  failed 
for  want  of  that  impulse  which  has  no  part  in  the  work 
of  philosophical  research  but  assists  in  determining   the 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  37 

healthy  acts  of  men  in  their  common  relations.  As  a 
thinker  Francis  Bacon  fastened  even  at  College  upon  the 
idea  which  it  was  his  life's  work  to  develop.  He  wished 
that  philosophers,  instead  of  turning  their  wits  round  and 
round  upon  themselves,  would  use  the  mind  as  a  tool  with 
which  to  hew  out  truth  from  the  great  quarry  of  nature 
and  shape  it  into  use  for  man.  From  any  observed  facts 
in  the  world  about  us,  let  us  by  thoughtful  experiment 
find  our  way  in  to  the  knowledge  of  the  law  that  governs 
them.  But  after  the  law  had  been  found  by  this  induc- 
tive method,  there  followed  the  carrying  out  of  the  main 
purpose  of  Bacon's  system,  and  that  was,  to  deduce  from 
the  law  practical  application  of  it  that  would  enlarge  the 
dominion  of  man.  When  Franklin  began  search  into  the 
unknown  cause  of  thunder  and  lightning  by  sending  up 
his  kites  into  a  thunderstorm,  there  was  beginning  of  in- 
ductive experiment;  and  when,  through  experiment  after 
experiment,  there  came  knowledge  of  electricity  and  of 
the  laws  under  which  it  acts,  deduction  followed.  Thus 
through  one  only  of  the  many  ways  of  employing  the  new 
force,  the  electric  telegraph,  an  invention  as  important  as 
that  of  the  mariner's  compass,  has  enlarged  the  powers  of 
man.  Such  discoveries,  Bacon  argued,  instead  of  being 
made  at  rare  intervals  by  accident,  would  be  made  fre- 
quently as  the  result  of  definite  inquiry,  if  men  followed 
the  methods  of  the  New  Organon,  which  he  opposed  to 
the  Organon  of  Aristotle.  There  may  have  been  nothing 
new  in  Bacon's  teaching,  but  in  him  the  energy  of  the 
time  put  it  into  the  mind  of  the  man  who  was  in  force  of 
intellect  second  only  to  Shakespeare,  to  apply  himself  with 
all  his  might  to  the  enforcement  of  the  great  central  prin- 
ciples of  true  research  in  science.     The  teaching  of  Bacon 


38  A    GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

set  men  who  had  scientific  tastes  inquiring.  In  the  days 
of  Charles  the  First  there  were  little  communities,  at 
Oxford  and  at  Gresham  College  in  London,  of  men  who 
were  seeking  the  advance  of  knowledge  by  experiment,  as 
Bacon  counselled.  The  movement  gathered  strength,  and 
one  issue  of  it  was  the  founding  in  1662  of  "  the  Royal 
Society  for  Improving  Natural  Knowledge,"  which  is  to 
this  day  in  England  the  great  public  expression  of  the 
Fellowship  of  Science. 

Science  was  born  again,  while  the  poetical  drama  passed 
into  decay.  Like  causes  had  been  at  work  to  make  the 
days  of  Elizabeth  and  James  the  great  period  alike  of 
English  and  of  Spanish  Drama.  Spanish  plays,  when 
they  were  not  on  sacred  subjects,  founded  their  plots 
commonly  on  complications  of  intrigue,  in  which  animal 
love  was  the  motive  power.  Influence  of  the  Spanish 
Drama  became  marked  in  France,  and  it  advanced  to 
England.  Under  Elizabeth,  dramatists  great  and  small 
made  plays  of  tales  that  touched  humanity  in  all  its 
forms.  Shakespeare  still  did  so  in  the  reign  of  James  I., 
and  so,  in  his  own  way,  did  Ben  Jonson,  but  among  other 
men  there  was  an  almost  general  acceptance  of  the  fashion 
of  the  time.  The  plays  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  were 
all  first  produced  in  the  reign  of  James.  Apart  from 
Shakespeare's  there  are  none  which  contain  finer  strains 
of  imaginative  verse  ;  but  there  is  no  longer,  in  the  choice 
and  management  of  the  plots  a  range  wide  as  all  the 
interests  of  man.  Usually  also  it  is  not  love  on  which 
the  plots  turn,  but  a  sensual  passion  that  mistakes  its 
name.  The  Puritans  began  war  against  plays  chiefly 
because  they  were  at  first  acted  on  Sundays.  After  that 
cause  of  contention  ceased,  there  remained  no  very  sub- 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  39 

stantial  ground  of  offence.  Shakespeare  wrote  for  audi- 
ences that  represented  fairly  the  whole  body  of  the 
English  people.  But  when  the  matter  of  the  plays  lost 
wholesomeness  there  was  a  gradual  desertion  of  the  play- 
houses by  men  who  represented  no  small  part  of  the  best 
life  of  England.  This  lowered  the  tone  of  the  audiences. 
The  stage  reflects  only  the  world  before  the  curtain  and 
within  the  playhouse  walls.  When,  therefore,  the  audi- 
ence sinks  below  a  fair  representation  of  the  whole  life 
of  the  country,  the  plays  sink  with  it.  In  Ben  Jonson's 
relation  with  the  stage  we  find  vigorous  illustration  of 
this  process  of  decay.  He  could  not  refrain  from  expres- 
sions of  contempt  for  audiences  out  of  which  the  large  life 
of  humanity  was  gone.  Turning,  at  last,  from  "the 
loathed  stage,"  with  an  ode  pouring  fierce  scorn  upon  the 
men  who  called  themselves  its  critics  and  its  patrons,  who 
discussed  each  day  "  something  they  call  a  play,"  he  said 
of  them 

If  they  love  lees,  and  leave  the  lusty  wine, 
Envy  them  not,  their  palate's  with  the  swine. 

That  ode  was  written  in  the  year  1630,  only  fourteen 
years  after  the  death  of  Shakespeare. 

There  was  decay  also  in  the  versification  of  the  plays. 
Marlowe  had  brought  blank  verse  into  use  as  the  measure 
of  dramatic  poetry.  Shakespeare  had  brought  it  to  per- 
fection. With  increased  familiarity  there  had  come  in- 
creased freedom  in  its  use.  With  many  dramatists  in 
Shakespeare's  latter  day,  freedom  of  use  meant  often  care- 
less use.  During  the  reigns  of  James  I.  and  Charles  I. 
the  carelessness  was  more  habitual.  At  last  the  decline 
was  general,  and  when  the  drama  was  revived,  after  the 


40  A    GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

Commonwealth,  those  who  tried  to  write  blank  verse  pro- 
duced usually  prose  hacked  into  bad  lengths.  The  art  of 
writing  blank  verse  was  extinct,  and  critics  were  pretty 
well  agreed  to  give  up  its  use  in  the  drama.  No  great 
use  had  ever  been  made  of  it  in  other  forms  of  poetry. 
But  just  when  this  was  settled,  Milton  produced  in  blank 
verse  "  Paradise  Lost,"  and  upon  that  rock  the  critical 
cockboats  came  to  pieces. 

There  was  decay  even  in  the  polite  forms  of  ingenious 
speech.  Elizabethan  Euphuism  lost  its  fresh  elastic  life, 
the  strain  that  still  was  healthy  strain  of  a  quick  wit. 
The  strain  remained,  painfully  showing  itself  in  stiff- 
jointed  struggles  for  agility.  The  later  Euphuism  was 
laboured,  obscure  and  pedantic.  What  we  called  in  Eng- 
land Euphuism  was  a  form  of  writing  that  spread  out  of 
Italy  to  France  and  Spain  as  well  as  to  England.  The 
fashion  being  artificial  could  not  last,  and  the  manner  of 
its  decay  was  the  same  throughout.  In  Italy,  Spain, 
France,  England  it  was  passing  at  the  same  time  through 
like  stages  of  decay.  While  Donne  stands  for  type  of  the 
change  in  English  Literature,  its  type  in  Italy  is  Marino, 
in  Spain,  Gongora.  Our  Euphuists  were  contemporary 
with  a  corresponding  school  of  poets  called  in  Spanish 
Literature  the  Conceptistas,  and  our  Later  Euphuists, 
whom  Samuel  Johnson  afterwards  called  "metaphysical 
poets,"  were  contemporary  with  a  school  of  Spanish  poets 
called  the  Cultos,  who,  like  our  later  Euphuists,  mightily 
affected  culture.  Culture!  The  aim  of  culture  is  to 
bring  forth  in  their  due  season  the  natural  fruits  of  the 
earth. 

But  the  deep  religious  life  that  has  never  died  in  the 
English   people,  and   is   the   strength  of  many  opposite 


OF  ENGLISH  LITEItATURE.  41 

forms  of  opinion,  found  expression  still,  whatever  the  out- 
side dress  in  which  fashion  had  clothed  it.  Even  in 
Donne's  poetry  that  inner  grace  of  thought  makes  itself 
felt  through  the  misfitting  dress  of  words  that  cumbers  it. 
The  poems  of  George  Herbert's  "  Temple  "  were  written 
in  1630-33  during  the  three  last  years  of  his  life,  when  he 
was  rector  of  Bemerton,  housed  in  a  damp  hollow  and 
slowly  dying  of  consumption.  These  poems  have  all  the 
outward  features  of  the  later  Euphuism,  but  the  living 
soul  of  the  poet  has  struck  its  own  fire  into  them  all.  As 
the  flesh  was  sickening  and  dying,  the  spirit  rose  in  health 
and  life.  Herbert  represented  the  English  church  as 
loved  by  those  who  were  most  ready  to  find  emblems  in 
aid  of  spiritual  life  in  that  form  of  ceremonial  against 
which  the  Puritans  contended.  But  no  form  of  opinion 
has  ever  dulled  the  English  reader's  sense  of  the  pure 
spirit  of  devotion  that  breathes  out  of  George  Herbert's 
singing.  His  "  Temple "  had  so  great  an  effect  upon 
men's  minds,  that  it  gave  rise  to  a  little  school  of  poets 
who  avowed  themselves  his  followers  and  imitators.  Best 
of  the  group  and  nearest  to  his  master,  whom  he  some- 
times equalled,  Henry  Vaughan,  was,  like  Herbert  him- 
self, a  Welshman. 

There  was  decay  also  under  James  I.,  or  tendency  to 
decay,  in  the  old  sense  of  the  relation  between  Crown  and 
People.  Elizabeth  had  felt  like  an  absolute  queen,  and 
had  stretched  her  prerogative.  The  people  believed  that, 
"  divinity  doth  hedge  a  king,"  and  with  the  Queen,  true 
Englishwoman,  whatever  her  faults,  it  was  Elizabeth  for 
England  and  not  England  for  Elizabeth.  With  her  suc- 
cessor it  was  rather  England  for  James  than  James  for 
England.      Such  a  king  soon  brought  into  question  the 


42  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

limits  of  royal  authority.  Locke  has  observed  that  liberty 
is  apt  to  suffer  under  a  good  sovereign,  because  the  trust 
of  the  people  goes  with  every  undue  use  of  the  royal 
power.  The  motive  and  the  end  are  held  to  justify  the 
means.  But  when  a  weak  rule  follows,  ground  has  to  be 
recovered  upon  which  the  Sovereign  can  no  longer  be 
trusted.  Then  may  come  strife.  The  question  of  the 
limit  of  authority  extended,  therefore,  in  the  reign  of 
James  the  First  from  Church  to  State. 

One  of  the  Church  questions  agitated  in  those  days 
touched  the  divine  authority  of  Tithes.  John  Selden, 
trained  to  the  law,  was,  among  all  of  his  time,  the  one 
man  most  learned  in  what  we  now  call  the  constitutional 
history  of  England.  He  took  for  his  motto  a  Greek  sen- 
tence meaning  "  Above  all  things,  Liberty."  He  was  an 
antiquary  who  distinctly  valued  study  of  the  past  as  giv- 
ing, "necessary  light  to  the  present,"  and  who  spoke  of 
"the  too  studious  affectation  of  bare  and  sterile  antiquity" 
as  "  nothing  else  than  to  be  exceeding  busy  about  noth- 
ing." Among  the  books  written  by  Selden  that  brought 
a  knowledge  of  the  past  to  bear  upon  interpretation  of  the 
present,  was  one,  published  in  1618,  on  "the  History  of 
Tithes."  His  purpose,  he  said,  was  not  to  take  any  side  in 
the  argument  for  and  against  their  divine  institution,  but 
to  bring  together  a  narrative  of  facts  and  leave  readers  to 
use  them  as  they  pleased.  Selden's  facts  bore  very  dis- 
tinctly against  that  principle  of  divine  authority  which 
King  James  cherished  in  church  matters  as  an  outwork 
for  defence  of  the  great  keep  in  which  he  himself  dwelt. 
He  had  Selden  before  him,  reasoned  with  him,  brought 
him  before  the  High  Commission  Court,  ordered  a  confu- 
tation of  his  book  to  be  written,  and  said  to  him,  "  If  you 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  43 

or  any  of  }-our  friends  shall  write  against  tliis  confutation 
I  will  throw  you  into  prison."  It  was  in  the  same  }Tear 
that  James  caused  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  to  be  executed  for 
the  satisfaction  of  the  King  of  Spain.  In  1621  the  King 
came  into  conflict  with  his  Parliament.  Being  offended 
at  advice  from  Parliament,  he  told  the  House  of  Commons 
that  its  privileges  were  held  from  the  Crown,  were  "rather 
a  toleration  than  inheritance,"  and  that  if  members  forgot 
their  duty .  they  would  be  disallowed.  The  House  of 
Commons  took  counsel  with  John  Selden,  and  in  accord- 
ance with  his  evidence  entered  a  protest  on  its  journals 
declaring  that,  "  the  liberties,  franchises,  privileges,  and 
jurisdiction  of  Parliament  are  the  ancient  and  undoubted 
birthright  and  inheritances  of  the  subjects  of  England." 
King  James  at  a  Privy  Council  sent  for  the  Commons' 
journal  and  with  his  own  hand  erased  that  entry.  Then 
he  dissolved  the  Parliament,  imprisoned  some  of  its  mem- 
bers, and  placed  Selden  in  custody  of  the  Sheriff.  When 
afterwards,  at  the  close  of  his  reign,  James  was  obliged  to 
summon  a  new  Parliament,  John  Selden  entered  it  as 
member  for  Lancaster,  and  he  contributed  his  scholarship 
to  the  contest  against  exercise  of  absolute  authority  by 
Charles  the  First. 

When  James  the  First  died,  John  Milton,  a  youth  of 
seventeen,  went  from  St.  Paul's  school  in  London  to 
Christ's  College,  Cambridge.  The  land  was  at  that  time 
full  of  song,  and  the  English  still  were,  as  they  had  been 
since  the  days  of  Henry  VIII.,  distinctly  a  musical  nation. 
In  Elizabeth's  reign  part  of  the  common  furniture  of  a 
barber's  shop  was  a  pair  of  virginals  on  which  a  customer 
could  play  while  he  was  waiting  to  be  trimmed.  It  re- 
quired no  special  preparation  to  strike   up,  in  a  chance 


44  A    GLANCE  AT   TUE  PAST 

company  of  friends,  catches,  madrigals,  and  part  songs. 
Skill  in  song  writing  was  an  attainment  that  became  the 
man  of  fashion,  and  perhaps  there  was  no  period  in  which 
song  writing  had  a  larger  place  in  English  Literature  than 
the  reign  of  Charles  the  First.  Men  who  in  earlier  times 
would  have  written  many  plays  and  a  few  songs,  now 
wrote  one  or  two  plays  and  many  songs.  Songs  of  the 
cavaliers  sometimes  glorified  the  drunkard  and  the  light- 
o'-love,  in  playful  strains  that  were  meant  only  as  a  gay 
form  of  defiance  to  the  Puritan.  Among  men  of  less  wit 
the  same  antagonism  only  made  the  descent  easier  to  fel- 
lowship with  Gryll. 

In  such  times  Milton,  after  seven  years  of  study  at 
Cambridge,  had  withdrawn  to  his  father's  house  in  Hor- 
ton,  a  village  near  Windsor  and  Eton,  and  was  labouring 
to  fit  himself  for  high  use  of  what  talent  he  had  as  a  poet. 
He  had  closed  his  sonnet  of  self-dedication,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-three,  with  a  resolve  to  which  he  was,  throughout 
his  after  life,  as  true  as  man  can  be : 

All  is,  if  I  have  grace  to  use  it  so, 
As  ever  in  my  great  task-master's  eye. 

Milton  was  in  his  twenty-fourth  year  when  he  went  home 
to  Horton:  and  remained  there  until  he  was  within  eight 
months  of  the  age  of  thirty.  At  Horton  he  wrote  L'Al- 
legro  and  II  Penseroso,  Arcades,  Comus  and  Lycidas. 
"  Arcades  "  was  a  slight  domestic  masque  written  for  the 
family  of  the  Earl  of  Bridge  water,  to  be  used  as  an  ex- 
pression of  family  affection.  Comus  was  a  state  masque, 
written  to  be  presented  at  Ludlow  Castle  by  the  Earl  of 
Bridgewater,  when  he  gave,  as  representative  of  the  sov- 
ereign, a  grand  entertainment  upon  coming  into  residence 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  45 

as  Lord  President  of  the  West.  It  was  produced  in  the 
great  hall  at  Ludlow  Castle  on  the  29th  of  September 
1634,  and  must  have  been  written  not  later  than  in  the 
preceding  spring,  to  allow  time  for  the  writing  of  the  mu- 
sic to  the  words,  the  learning  of  parts,  preparation  of 
elaborate  scenes  and  masks,  and  requisite  rehearsals.  In 
the  preceding  year,  1633,  a  Puritan  lawyer,  William 
Prynne,  author  of  many  books  maintaining  the  less  liberal 
form  of  Puritan  opinion,  published  his  "  Histriomastix," 
which  denounced  stage  plays,  masques  and  dances  in  un- 
compromising terms.  The  chief  actors  in  masques  were 
members  and  friends  of  the  family  that  gave  the  enter- 
tainment. The  Queen  herself  took  part  in  the  Court 
Masques,  and  there  arose  outcry  against  Prynne  that 
passages  in  his  book  were  a  direct  insult  to  the  Queen. 
Prynne  published  his  book  about  Christmas  1632.  On 
the  first  of  February  1633  (new  style)  Prynne  was  com- 
mitted to  the  Tower.  He  was  there  kept  prisoner  with- 
out bail.  Information  was  not  exhibited  against  him  in 
the  Starchamber  until  June  1633,  and  the  sentence  of  the 
Starchamber  was  not  pronounced  until  February  17, 1634. 
It  was,  that  Prynne  should  pay  a  fine  of  <£5000,  be  ex- 
pelled from  his  Inn,  disbarred,  deprived  of  his  Oxford 
degree,  set  in  the  pillory  at  Westminster  and  Cheapside, 
and  in  each  pillory  have  one  of  his  ears  cut  off.  Though 
many  of  the  Lords  did  not  expect  that  such  a  judgment 
would  be  executed,  and  the  Queen  interceded,  there  was 
no  remission,  and  Prynne  was  pilloried  on  the  7th  and 
10th  of  May  1634,  either  while  Milton  was  writing 
"  Comus"  or  when  he  had  just  finished  it. 

That  Milton,  who  was,  like  Spenser,  in  the  best  sense 
of  the  word,  but  in  none  of  its  narrower  senses,  Puritan, 


46  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

should  precisely  at  this  time  be  asked  to  write  a  masque 
and  accept  the  commission,  is  worth  notice.  The  Inns  of 
Court  spent  an  unusual  sum  upon  a  masque,  as  a  loyal 
way  of  repudiating  the  opinions  of  the  disgraced  lawyer. 
Some  like  feeling  of  loyalty  may  have  caused  the  Earl  of 
Bridgewater  to  grace  his  entertainment  with  a  masque 
that  required  costly  preparation.  Milton  was  then  in  his 
twenty-sixth  year,  and  with  a  just  sense  of  the  poet's 
office,  he  showed  that  through  masque  or  play  as  purely 
as  through  psalm  or  hymn  the  true  music  of  life  could  be 
expressed.  Without  a  touch  of  churlish  controversy,  or 
one  word  that  could  check  innocent  enjoyment  of  the  fes- 
tival to  which  he  added  new  delight,  he  made  his  delight 
consist  in  a  setting  forth  of  the  victory  of  temperance 
over  excess,  of  the  true  spirit  of  purity  over  the  sensual 
debasement  of  the  flesh.  The  charming  rod  of  Comus 
that  must  be  reversed  before  his  power  is  destroyed,  ena- 
bles the  spirit  of  unlicensed  mirth  to  cause  things  to  seem 
other  than  they  are.  When  the  fashion  of  the  time  saw 
only  hospitality  in  him  who  forced  his  friend  down  to  the 
level  of  the  swine,  Comus  had  cast  his  spells  into  the 
spungy  air,  of  power  to  cheat  the  eye  with  blear  illusion. 
When  Sabrina,  nymph  of  the  Severn,  was  raised  to  release 
the  lady  from  the  chair  of  Comus  to  which  she  was  bound 
by  her  magic  art,  it  was  Sabrina,  because  the  Severn  was 
the  river  most  familiar  at  Ludlow.  From  any  other  river 
Milton  might  have  raised  a  waternymph  to  typify  the 
spirit  of  Temperance  that  must  arise  to  break  the  social 
spells  of  a  bad  custom.  Comus  escaped.  His  wand  was 
not  reversed.  He  lived  on  to  become  God  of  the  English 
Court  in  Charles  the  Second's  time.  Only  in  our  day  we 
have  seen  his  wand  reversed. 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  47 

As  the  old  question  of  the  limit  of  authority  became 
more  and  more  urgent,  and  conflict  of  argument  was 
blended  with  conflict  of  bodily  force,  above  the  tumult  of 
civil  war  there  rose  upon  every  side  the  voices  of  the  lead- 
ers in  the  war  of  thought.  By  thought  alone  the  issues 
would  be  finally  determined.  The  chief  philosopher  of 
the  time,  Thomas  Hobbes,  reasoned  out  the  position  of  the 
citizen,  and  nature  of  the  Body  Politic.  He  argued  that, 
like  the  body  natural,  the  body  politic  must  needs  be,  for 
its  own  well  being,  in  absolute  subjection  to  a  single  head. 
Such  a  head,  he  said,  is  the  king,  constituted  by  a  society 
of  men  naturally  equal,  who  give  up  to  a  central  authority, 
for  their  own  better  preservation,  some  part  of  the  right 
inherent  in  each  one.  Sir  Robert  Filmer,  a  loyal  gentle- 
man of  less  intellectual  mark,  acquired  prominence  by 
arguing  that  Hobbes  conceded  too  much  when  he  based  the 
absolute  authority  of  kings  upon  a  social  compact  among 
men  naturally  equal.  Men,  he  said,  never  were  naturally 
equal.  First  there  was  Adam.  When  Eve  followed, 
Adam  was  master.  When  sons  were  born,  their  father 
was  their  superior.  Out  of  the  divine  ordinance  of  father- 
hood Sir  Robert  Filmer  drew  the  origin  of  an  authority  in 
kings  received  from  God  alone.  When  the  king's  cause 
was  lost,  conflict  of  thought  was  only  the  more  active. 
The  king  was  tried,  condemned,  and  executed  for  treason 
against  his  people.  Was  there  indeed  a  reciprocal  obliga- 
tion, and  could  a  king  as  well  as  a  subject  become  guilty 
of  the  capital  offence  of  treason?  Milton  had  taken  no 
part  in  the  physical  struggle,  he  was  one  who,  as  he  said, 
"  in  all  his  writings  spoke  never  that  any  man's  skin  should 
be  grazed."  His  part  was  with  those  only  who  ranged 
thought  against  thought  for  the  defence  of  a  just  liberty. 


48  A   GLANCE  AT  TUE  PAST 

From  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  war  to  the  settlement  ot 
the  Revolution  was  a  period  of  about  five  and  forty  years. 
The  man  of  five  and  twenty  had  seen  all  its  changes  by  the 
time  he  reached  three  score  and  ten,  and  lived  through 
the  din  of  all  the  conflicting  arguments  of  all  the  parties. 
Whatever  the  outward  changes  that  went  with  it,  all  was 
one  continuous  effort  to  find  for  England  a  solution  of  the 
problem  of  the  limit  of  authority,  so  far  as  that  was  to  be 
done  by  settling  the  relations  between  Government  and 
People.  The  Commonwealth  was  an  experiment  in  that 
direction.  Really  sustained  by  the  vigour  of  a  single  man, 
all  seemed  to  be  sound  while  Cromwell  governed.  Opin- 
ion was  freely  expressed,  in  many  forms,  as  to  the  best 
constitution  of  a  state.  Thomas  Hobbes  published  in  1651 
his  "Leviathan,"  the  chief  embodiment  of  the  old  argu- 
ment for  an  absolute  sovereign ;  James  Harrington  pub- 
lished in  1656  his  "  Oceana,"  the  first  plea  in  English 
Literature  for  vote  by  ballot  after  the  manner  of  the  Vene- 
tian republic,  filling  every  office  of  the  state  by  free  elec- 
tion, with  frequent  return  of  the  elected  to  a  .testing  of 
their  continued  fitness  by  a  fresh  dependence  on  the  votes 
of  their  constituents.  Milton's  tract  on  "  the  Tenure  of 
Kings  and  Magistrates  "  dealt  with  the  essential  principle 
in  contest,  and  reasoned  against  irresponsible  power.  The 
indictment  of  England  before  Europe,  written  in  1649  by 
Claude  Saumaise,  Selden  was  asked  to  answer,  but  Selden 
pointed  to  Milton,  knowing  well  that,  in  the  pleading  of 
such  a  cause  before  the  world,  acuteness  in  applying  knowl- 
edge of  the  past  to  uses  of  the  present  needs  to  be  quick- 
ened by  the  fervour  of  a  high  minded  enthusiasm.  Milton 
therefore  wrote,  in  Latin,  for  all  Europe,  the  reply  to  Sau- 
maise, his  first  "  Defence  of  the  People  of  England,"  and 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  49 

sacrificed  his  failing  eyesight  over  the  labour  of  a  second 
Defence.  In  all  this  there  is  to  be  felt  under  passing  acci- 
dents of  controversy,  the  labouring  of  English  thought 
towards  the  settlement  not  reached  till  1689.  Just  before 
the  death  of  Cromwell,  Richard  Baxter  added  to  the 
Controversy  his  "  Holy  Commonwealth,"  in  which  he 
condemned  arrangements  that,  like  Harrington's,  left  God 
out  of  account.  Baxter  made  God  head  of  the  Common- 
wealth, and  a  king  ruler  under  God  and  for  his  people. 
He  upheld  monarchy,  though  he  had  felt  it  his  duty  to 
make  common  cause  with  those  who  sought  to  check  the 
aggressions  of  Charles  I. 

The  argument  touching  the  best  way  of  providing  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  religious  life  within  the  nation 
was  carried  on  now  mainly  by  the  representatives  of 
three  forms  of  opinion.  Two  of  them  agreed  in  the 
desire  to  secure  unity  within  the  church  by  an  accord  of 
opinion,  determined  by  authority.  They  differed  as  to  the 
form  of  the  authority,  but  if  the  Presbyterian  form  had 
been  supreme,  its  theory  of  Church  Union  would  have 
impelled  it  to  force,  if  it  could,  all  England  into  conform- 
ity. This  bias  of  opinion  was  in  direct  accord  with  the 
principles  of  monarchy.  The  third  party  was  that  of  the 
Independents.  In  the  time  of  Elizabeth  there  was  an 
obscure  sect  known  as  the  Brownists,  who  held  a  doctrine 
then  supposed  to  urge  direct  encouragement  of  heresy 
and  schism.  Their  argument  was  that  in  matters  of 
opinion  men  never  'will  agree  if  they  are  free,  as  they 
should  be,  to  think  for  themselves.  They  proposed, 
therefore,  that  in  religion  all  who  took  the  Bible  for  their 
rule  of  faith  should  find  in  that  fact  their  bond  of  union ; 
that  each  man  should  be  free  to  draw  his  own  conclusions 


50  A    GLANCE  AT   THE  PAST 

as  to  the  right  way  to  the  higher  spiritual  life,  that  he 
should  then  be  free  also  to  unite  himself  for  religious 
worship  into  an  independent  congregation  with  those  who 
agreed  with  him  in  their  choice  of  a  spiritual  guide.  A 
church  thus  formed  would  represent  within  itself  all  the 
diversities  of  human  opinion.  Each  of  its  congregations 
would  respect  the  different  opinions  of  its  neighbours, 
molesting  none  and  by  none  molested,  and  all  would  be 
firmly  united  as  one  brotherhood,  not  by  an  impossible 
accord  of  intellectual  opinion,  but  by  that  essential  spirit 
of  religion  to  which  every  form  of  doctrine  is  designed  to 
lead,  the  "charity,  which  is  the  bond  of  perfectness." 
As  this  form  of  opinion  spread,  the  obscure  Brownists  of 
Elizabeth's  time  became  the  strong  body  of  the  Independ- 
ents in  the  days  of  Charles  I.  and  the  Commonwealth. 
Winning  at  first  readiest  acceptance  from  those  in  whom 
the  bias  was  rather  towards  freedom  of  individual  thought 
than  towards  authority,  it  included  the  men  with  whom, 
in  civil  affairs,  the  theory  of  a  republic  would  find  favour. 
Each  of  these  forms  of  opinion  had,  in  the  days  of  Civil 
war  and  of  the  Commonwealth,  an  earnest  and  pure- 
minded  representative.  Jeremy  Taylor  maintained  the 
ideal  of  the  episcopal  established  Church ;  Richard  Baxter 
represented  in  the  purest  form  the  Presbyterian  princi- 
ple ;  John  Milton,  the  Independent.  Of  these  three  men, 
however  different  in  degree  and  character  of  intellect,  the 
spiritual  life  was  one,  they  were  alike  religious.  Jeremy 
Taylor  had  endeavoured  to  bring  all  within  the  Church  by 
widening  its  pale,  and  asking  for  no  other  test  of  Church 
fellowship  than  common  acceptance  of  that  oldest  and 
simplest  formula  known  as  the  Apostles'  Creed.  Milton 
desired  no  test  of  Church  fellowship  but  an  acceptance 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  51 

of  the  Bible  as  the  basis  of  opinion,  and  upon  that  basis 
opinion  wholly  free.  Each  pleaded  for  charity  and  tol- 
eration. When  Milton  condemned  Prelacy,  he  did  not 
condemn  those  who  preferred  prelacy  within  the  Church 
to  which  they  joined  themselves,  but  those  who  required 
all  men,  whatever  their  personal  convictions,  to  accept 
prelacy  as  the' one  form  of  government  within  the  Church. 
Richard  Baxter,  in  his  numerous  books,  again  and  again 
pleaded  fur  the  healing  of  dissension  and  the  restoration 
of  peace  to  the  Church.  What  he  especially  observed 
was  the  large  accord  between  the  Presbyterians  and  the 
church  from  which  they  had  seceded.  His  aim,  after  the 
Restoration,  was  to  obtain  from  either  side  little  conces- 
sions that  would  make  it  possible  to  bring  back  the  whole 
Presbyterian  body  into  what  Langland  had  called  the 
Castle  of  Unity.  From  Baxter's  point  of  view  there  was 
no  scheme  to  be  found  that  could  include  the  Independ- 
ents. The  radical  difference  between  Presbyterian  and 
Independent  had,  in  fact,  been  chief  cause  of  the  divisions 
that  after  Cromwell's  death  produced  the  failure  of  the 
Commonwealth.  England,  accepting  the  fact  of  the  fail- 
ure, tried  monarchy  again,  and  could  do  so  only  by  the 
Restoration  of  the  Stuarts.  Prince  Charles  had  been 
taught  in  a  stern  school  and  might  have  learnt  his  lesson. 
The  Presbyterians  at  the  Restoration  were  too  strong  a 
body  to  be  directly  slighted.  But  they  had  not  been 
tolerant  in  the  days  of  their  supremacy.  The  restored 
Church  was  full  of  men  who  had  suffered  deeply  from  the 
bitterness  of  party  spirit.  There  was  a  time  now  for 
retaliation.  All  men  were  not  Baxters  and  Jeremy  Tay- 
lors, and  among  the  natural  passions  and  resentments  of 
the  time  Baxter  found  it  impossible  to  work  his  cure  for 


52  A    GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

Church  Divisions.  Still  also  the  Roman  Catholics  were  a 
strong  body  in  the  land,  able  to  draw  shrewd  conclusions 
on  their  own  behalf  from  the  continued  strife  among 
Reformers. 

There  passed,  then,  into  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second 
all  this  religious  energy,  together  with  the  civil  contro- 
versy that  seemed  to  be  settled  but  had,  in  fact,  been 
only  advanced  a  step  or  two.  The  days  of  his  adversity 
had  taught  the  new  king  nothing  except  some  of  the 
fashions  that  were  least  worth  borrowing  from  France. 
As  far  as  his  influence  extended,  in  every  sense,  good 
music  went  out  of  fashion.  He  had  no  interest  in  the 
old  English  harmonies,  in  sweet  accord  of  various  instru- 
ments, fair  type  of  the  accord  of  various  minds.  He  cared 
only  for  dance  tunes  to  which  he  could  snap  his  fingers, 
and  these,  he  thought,  were  played  best  on  the  fiddle. 
The  king's  band,  therefore,  was  transformed  into  a  body 
of  French  fiddlers ;  the  same  music  found  its  way  into 
the  revived  theatres,  with  dancing  to  it,  and  this  was 
glanced  at  by  George  Villiers,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  in 
his  burlesque  play,  "the  Rehearsal,"  when  spirits  de- 
scended with  fiddlers  dressed  in  green,  and  "the  green 
frogs  croaked  forth  a  coranto  of  France."  But  there 
came  into  England  at  this  time  a  more  important  influ- 
ence of  France  over  our  literature.  In  outward  forms, 
partly  but  not  altogether  for  good,  Italian  influence  went 
out  and  French  influence  came  in.  When  many  of  the 
cavaliers,  after  the  loss  of  their  cause,  formed  a  little  Eng- 
lish colony  in  Paris,  they  became  guests  in  the  salons  of 
the  Hotel  Rambouillet,  and  were  in  daily  relation  with 
the  new  critical  spirit.  The  Marquise  de  Rambouillet 
had  led  a  movement  among  the  ladies  who,  as  queens  of 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  53 

society  might  govern  its  usages,  for  the  repression  of  all 
kinds  of  evil  speaking.  Even  the  common  forms  of  speech 
in  which  a  lady  could  not  distinguish  herself  from  her 
chambermaid,  were  avoided  as  low,  but  there  was  at  the 
same  time  an  honest  attempt  to  aid  in  freeing  the  lan- 
guage from  uncertainty  of  conflicting  dialects  and  shifting 
usage,  so  that  there  might  be  one  fixed  language,  a  stand- 
ard French,  through  which  to  express  an  enduring  litera- 
ture. Out  of  this  social  movement  the  French  Academy 
had  arisen  in  1635,  the  year  before  the  birth  of  Boileau. 
The  Academy  was  to  produce  a  Dictionary  that  was  to  be 
the  accredited  list  of  words  thenceforth  to  be  adopted  as 
classical  French.  In  this  process  of  fixing  the  language 
by  a  formal  effort,  preference  was  naturally  given  to  words 
of  Latin  origin.  French  being  a  Romance  language,  such 
words  were  in  harmony  with  its  whole  structure.  The 
French  Academy  was  at  work,  the  ladies,  called  in  the 
polite  strain  encouraged  by  themselves,  les  Precieuses, 
were  still  in  dainty  league  with  the  grammarians  and 
curious  in  words  and  phrases,  Avhen  the  exiled  English 
courtiers  came  among  them.  At  the  same  time  the  true 
vigour  of  French  literature  was  rising  to  its  highest,  and 
already  Corneille  was  producing  his  first  and  best  plays. 
Critical  discussion  of  words  was  passing  on  towards  a  criti- 
cism that  would  touch  the  essence  of  the  thought  within 
the  words.  This  movement  began  while  the  Italian  influ- 
ence in  its  decayed  form  still  prevailed.  In  their  own 
polite  way,  the  Precieuses  did  affect  literature.  They 
believed  that  it  became  a  person  of  quality  to  have  taste 
in  writing,  and  that  Literature  was  a  matter  of  high  cul- 
ture with  which  the  vulgar  world  had  nothing  to  do. 
Thus  taught  in  France,  the  English  courtiers  after  the 


54  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

Restoration  also  affected  taste.  He  was  a  man  of  wit  and 
taste  who  could  write  verse  to  the  tune  of  a  saraband.  A 
great  noble  might  show  taste  also  by  discovering  and  aid- 
ing genius  in  others.  There  was  still  need  of  the  relation 
of  patron  and  client.  In  France  that  relation  was  main- 
tained in  the  most  elaborate  and  dainty  forms,  as  part  of 
a  great  man's  state.  But  Moliere  had  just  then  in  France 
declared  his  power,  and  through  him  the  genius  of  comedy 
was  lavishing  rare  wealth  of  unaffected  wit  upon  the  ex- 
pression of  a  shrewd  good  sense.  Moliere  wrote  as  his 
friend  Boileau  would  have  had  men  write ;  and  Boileau, 
who  was  only  twenty-four  years  old  when  Charles  the 
Second  became  king  of  England,  in  that  year  began  to 
sweep  off  with  his  satires  the  last  traces  of  Italian  influ- 
ence. "  Let  us  turn,"  he  said,  "  from  the  paste  brilliants 
of  Italy.     All  should  tend  to  good  sense." 

The  critical  influence  of  Boileau  rose,  and  extended 
through  nearly  all  Europe.  It  came  to  its  height  after 
1671,  when  he  published  his  imitation  of  Horace's  Art  of 
Poetry,  I? Art  Poetique.  France  then  was  infested  with 
small  critics,  and  in  England  too  a  polite  rhyming  about 
prose  and  prosing  about  rhyme  became  the  fashion.  John 
Sheffield,  Earl  of  Mulgrave,  wrote  in  verse  an  "  Essay  on 
Poetry,"  and  an  "Essay  on  Satire."  Lord  Lansdowne 
wrote  a  poem  on  "  Unnatural  Flights  in  Poetry."  The 
Earl  of  Roscommon,  best  of  the  group,  wrote  in  verse  an 
"  Essay  on  Translated  Verse."  Boileau  himself  was  a  true 
critic  who  taught  at  the  right  time  the  right  doctrine. 
He  was  right  when  he  bade  those  who  had  strayed  too  far 
from  good  sense  to  study  the  native  dignity  of  style  in  the 
best  poets  of  the  Augustan  time.  With  an  ease  worthy 
of  all  imitation,  those  poets  had  clothed  each  thought  in 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  55 

simple  and  natural  words  so  truly  fitted  that  the  words 
they  used  are  for  all  time  the  happiest  expression  of  the 
thought  they  uttered.  Go  to  Nature,  said  Boileau,  but 
see  how  the  great  artist  follows  Nature,  and  look  up  to 
him  as  your  example.  The  small  critics  could  understand 
only  the  letter  of  all  this.  In  England  the  desire  to  avoid 
what  was  "  low  "  in  style  led  to  a  choice  of  words  from 
the  Latin  side  of  the  language,  from  which  there  was 
built  up  a  separate  book  English  ;  so  that  it  was  accounted 
as  great  a  mistake  to  write  like  a  man,  as  to  talk  like  a 
book.  This  fog  came  down  from  among  the  heights 
although  it  did  not  stay  by  them  long,  but  here  and  there 
it  lingers  still  among  the  valleys.  As  Boileau  did  not 
begin  to  write  his  satires  until  1660,  it  was  not  until  six 
or  seven  years  after  the  Restoration  that  his  influence  was 
generally  felt  in  England. 

Because  the  French  critics  knew  nothing  about  English 
Literature,  their  followers  shared  their  ignorance,  and  for 
two  or  three  generations  the  Commonwealth  period  seemed 
to  have  fallen  as  a  cloud  between  the  present  and  the  past. 

We  were  on  the  way  to  that  state  of  critical  conceit 
which  young  Addison  reflected  when  he  wrote  at  College, 
in  the  manner  of  his  time,  a  sketch  of  the  great  English 
poets  from  Chaucer  to  Dryden.  He  showed  his  ignorance 
of  Chaucer  by  adopting  the  opinion  of  the  day, 

In  vain  he  jests  in  his  unpolished  strain, 
And  tries  to  make  his  readers  laugh,  in  vain ; 

and  sank  deeper  still  when  he  followed  his  blind  guides 
by  looking  on  the  age  of  Elizabeth  as  a  "  barbarous  age," 

Old  Spenser  next,  warmed  with  poetic  rage, 
In  antick  tales  amused  a  barbarous  age. 


56  A    GLANCE  AT   THE  PAST 

But  now  the  mystic  tale  that  pleased  of  yore, 
Can  charm  an  understanding  age  no  more. 

Shakespeare,  young  Addison  left  out  altogether.  Although 
the  French  critics  understood  Milton  no  better  than 
Shakespeare,  Addison  fastened  upon  him  from  the  first, 
and  since  the  nightingale  was  nothing  to  the  cuckoos,  was 
content  to  say  of  him  "  he  seems  above  the  critic's  nicer 
law." 

Free  to  return  to  verse  after  long  labour  for  the  direct 
service  of  his  country,  Milton  had  finished  writing  "  Para- 
dise Lost "  in  the  year  of  the  plague  of  London,  1665, 
and  he  published  it  in  1667,  the  year  after  the  Fire  by 
which  great  part  of  the  city  was  destroyed.  At  some 
time  in  the  latter  years  of  the  Commonwealth  his  mind 
passed  from  its  first  conception,  which  was  of  an  Ejnc 
with  king  Arthur  for  its  hero,  to  the  theme  he  finally 
adopted.  The  land  was  full  of  controversies  touching  the 
form  of  religion.  Among  the  Commonwealth  men  there 
was  a  constant  bandying  of  technical  terms  in  theology, 
speculation  over  dogmas  founded  on  the  fall  of  man. 
Milton  had  little  liking  for  this  kind  of  argument,  he 
made  it  in  Paradise  Lost  one  of  the  entertainments  of  the 
devils,  who  were  to  amuse  themselves  as  they  pleased  until 
Satan's  return,  that  they 

reasoned  high 
Of  providence,  foreknowledge,  will,  and  fate, 
Fixed  fate,  free  will,  foreknowledge  absolute, 
And  found  no  end  in  wandering  mazes  lost. 

The  starting  point  of  scepticism  in  that  day  was  from 
a  dogmatic  theology  that  seemed  to  argue  God  unjust. 
When  Milton  took  for  his  theme  the  Fall  of  Man,  he  saw 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  57 

that  he  could  shape  out  of  it  a  poem  fulfilling  in  the 
highest  degree  all  requirements  of  the  Epic,  while  it 
would  set  to  music  the  religion  of  his  county,  as  he  felt  it, 
and  "justify  the  ways  of  God  to  man."  The  action  was 
one ;  it  was  great  in  the  persons  concerned,  the  First  Par- 
ents of  the  race;  great  in  itself;  and,  according  to  the 
religious  faith  of  his  countrymen,  supremely  great  in  its 
consequences.  He  was  supplied  also  with  that  supernat- 
ural machinery  which  was  held  to  be  essential  to  an  epic 
poem.  Ancient  traditions  of  angels  and  archangels  en- 
abled him  to  shape  the  contending  powers  of  Good  and 
Evil  into  spiritual  forms  entirely  suited  to  his  theme,  and 
wanting  in  no  element  of  dignity  or  grandeur.  In  Vergil's 
jEneid  the  one  theme  is  the  settlement  of  iEneas  among 
the  Latins,  great  in  its  consequence,  because  it  laid  the  first 
foundations  of  the  Roman  Empire.  What  happened  before 
the  action  of  the  poem,  and  what  was  to  come  of  it,  Ver- 
gil included  in  two  episodes.  iEneas  renewing  his  old 
griefs  in  narrative  to  Dido  tells  all  that  preceded ;  descend- 
ing afterwards  to  the  underworld,  he  learns  from  the  shade 
of  Anchises  what  shall  follow.  Milton,  in  like  manner, 
has  for  his  one  theme  the  Temptation  and  Fall,  with  its 
immediate  consequence,  the  expulsion  from  Paradise. 
What  came  before,  is  told  in  the  discourse  of  Raphael 
with  Adam  ;  what  should  follow,  is  learnt  from  the  Vision 
shown  by  Michael,  and  the  discourse  of  Michael  before 
Adam  and  Eve  quit  Eden.  That  episode  shows  the  sub- 
ject of  the  poem  great  in  its  consequence,  not  through 
man's  ruin,  but  through  his  redemption.  While  Milton, 
with  aid  of  the  highest  intellectual  culture,  enshrined  in 
Charles  the  Second's  reign  the  religion  of  his  country  in 
epic  that  rose  high  "  above  the  Aonian  Mount ;  "  Bunyan 


58  A    GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

in  his  way,  unlearned  in  any  but  one  book,  shaped  his 
religion  into  homely  allegory  of  the  Christian's  flight  from 
destruction,  and  of  his  aids  and  perils  as  a  Pilgrim  who 
sought  everlasting  life. 

In  1671,  three  years  before  his  death,  Milton  published 
in  one  volume  "  Paradise  Regained  "  and  "  Samson  Agon- 
istes."  Paradise  Regained  was  a  miniature  epic,  in  some 
sense  a  companion  to  Paradise  Lost,  since  the  theme  of 
one  poem  was  a  Temptation  and  a  Fall,  the  theme  of  the 
other  a  Temptation  and  a  Victory.  The  epic  form  in 
"  Paradise  Regained  "  was  deliberately  subdued  into  har- 
mony with  one  unbroken  strain,  of  which  the  burden  may 
be  said  to  be,  "  Rest  in  the  Lord,  and  wait  patiently  for 
him."  Paradise  is  to  be  Regained  by  every  man  who 
bears  the  temptations  of  life,  whatever  their  form,  in  the 
patient  spirit  of  Christ,  who  waits  his  Father's  time  and 
seeks  only  to  do  his  Father's  will.  The  temptation  to  dis- 
trust and  impatience  was  great  in  those  days  for  men  who 
like  Milton  had  battled  for  what  they  held  to  be  the  cause 
of  civil  and  religious  freedom,  and  who  saw,  in  the  politi- 
cal and  social  life  of  England  under  Charles  the  Second, 
exultation  of  the  Philistines  over  the. fallen  cause  of  God. 
For  this  reason  Milton  again  shaped  his  song  to  the  times, 
and  when  all  seemed  dark  about  him,  when  there  was  no 
man  who  could  tell  from  what  quarter  deliverance  would 
come,  he  published  his  last  poems.  In  "Paradise  Re- 
gained "  he  dwelt  upon  the  patience  of  Christ,  meek  and 
untroubled  in  his  firm  rest  upon  God.  In  the  midst  of 
"  Samson  Agonistes,"  he  set  in  a  fine  chorus  questioning 
from  the  condition  of  the  country,  questioning  from  the 
sorrows  of  the  individual  man ;  but  he  set  it  there  that  it 
might  have  its  answer  in  the  close. 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  59 

God  of  our  fathers  !  what  is  man 

That  thou  towards  him  witli  hand  so  various, 

Or  might  I  say  contrarious, 

Temper'st  thy  providence  through  his  short  course  ? 

The  foremost  of  those  who  seemed  chosen  by  God  to 
advance  his  glory  and  effect  the  people's  safety  —  the 
Cromwells,  Hampdens,  Pyms,  over  the  ruin  of  whose 
work  many  despaired  in  1671,  —  even  toward  these,  thus 
dignified, 

Thou  oft 

Amidst  their  height  of  noon, 

Changest  thy  countenance,  and  thy  hand,  with  no  regard 

Of  highest  favours  past 

From  thee  on  them,  or  them  to  thee  of  service. 

Nor  only  dost  degrade  them,  or  remit 

To  life  obscured,  which  were  a  fair  dismission, 

But  throw'st  them  lower  than  thou  didst  exalt  them  high, 

Unseemly  falls  in  human  eye, 

Too  grievous  for  the  trespass  or  omission ; 

Oft  leav'st  them  to  the  hostile  sword 

Of  heathen  or  profane,  their  carcases 

To  dogs  and  fowls  a  prey,  or  else  captived ; 

Or  to  the  unjust  tribunals,  under  change  of  times, 

And  condemnation  of  the  infjrateful  multitude. 


*&* 


But  Milton's  poem,  and  his  life  as  a  poet,  closed  in  the 

midst  of  outward  darkness  with  expression  of  the  quiet 

faith  that 

All  is  best,  though  we  oft  doubt 
AVhat  the  unsearchable  dispose 
Of  highest  Wisdom  brings  about, 
And  ever  best  found  in  the  close. 

In  this  case  the  event  showed  clearly  enough  that  Mil- 
ton's faith  was  well   founded.     The    very  circumstances 


60  A    GLANCE  AT   THE  PA.^T 

that  were  taken  as  grounds  of  despair  were  those  which 
secured  good  speed  to  the  settlement  desired.  The  Eng- 
lish Revolution  followed  within  eighteen  years  of  the  poems 
in  which  Milton  sought  to  suggest  that  it  is  one  part  of 
a  true  faith  in  God  not  to  despair  of  the  Republic. 

Taking  a  scripture  parallel,  for  the  more  ready  persua- 
sion of  the  people,  Dryden  shaped  in  his  "  Absalom  and 
Achitophel "  keen  satire  in  verse  as  a  political  pamphlet 
on  the  vital  question  of  the  day.  Faction  he  suggested 
had  been  heated  by  outcry  over  the  feigned  Popish  Plot, 
Shaftesbury  (Achitophel)  had  taken  advantage  of  this  to 
stir  Protestant  passion  and  persuade  Monmouth  (Absa- 
lom) to  rebellion  against  his  father.  Who  were  the  heads 
of  the  rebellion  ?  What  friends  had  the  king  ?  Here 
opportunity  is  given  for  vignette  sketches  of  leaders  on 
either  side.  Among  various  counsels  comes  that  of  the 
king.  His  enemies  had  abused  his  clemency,  but  let  them 
now 

"  Beware  the  fury  of  a  patient  man. 
Law  they  require :  let  Law  then  show  her  face." 

Dryden's  poem  was  published  on  the  17th  of  November 
1681 ;  on  the  24th  Law  showed  her  face  in  a  way  not  de- 
sired by  the  king,  for  the  grand  jury  ignored  the  bill  of 
indictment  against  Shaftesbury  and  he  was  saved.  But 
he  left  the  country  in  1682,  to  die  in  the  following  year  in 
the  course  of  nature.  His  friend  John  Locke  at  the  same 
time  left  England,  which  was  then  no  very  safe  home 
for  an  active  friend  of  liberty.  Both  went  to  Holland. 
Charles  the  Second  died  on  the  6th  of  February  1685. 
His  brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  succeeded  as  James  the 
Second,  and  began  his  reign  by  going  openly  to  mass.     In 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  61 

November  of  the  same  year  Louis  XIV.  in  France  revoked 
the  Edict  of  Nantes,  which  had  secured,  in  some  places, 
to  a  limited  extent,  freedom  of  worship  for  the  Protes- 
tants. Although  required  to  become  Roman  Catholics  and 
forbidden  to  quit  the  country,  many  French  Protestants 
went  into  exile.  Not  a  few  settled  in  England,  where 
their  descendants  add  to  the  strength  of  the  English  peo- 
ple. John  Evelyn  noted  in  his  diary  how  the  Bishop  of 
Valence  said  that  the  victory  over  heresy  in  the  Revoca- 
tion of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  was  "  but  what  was  wished  in 
England;  and  that  God  seemed  to  raise  the  French  king 
to  this  power  and  magnanimous  action,  that  he  might  be 
in  a  capacity  to  assist  in  doing  the  same  here."  King 
James  claimed  a  right  to  override  law  by  dispensing  with 
the  Test  Act,  and  in  April  1687  issued  a  Declaration  of 
Liberty  of  Conscience  in  England,  suspending  all  reli- 
gious oaths  and  tests.  This  set  dissenters  free  as  well  as 
Roman  Catholics.  The  first  appearance  in  Literature  of 
Daniel  Defoe  was  as  the  writer  of  three  pamphlets  to 
warn  the  Dissenters,  he  being  himself  one,  that  when  they 
sent  addresses  of  thanks  to  the  king  for  his  repeal  of  penal 
laws,  they  thanked  him  for  assuming  to  himself  a  right  to 
override  the  law.  Again  was  urged  the  limit  of  royal 
authority.  In  the  same  year  1687  Dry  den,  who  had 
become  Roman  Catholic,  aided  the  king's  purpose  of 
bringing  about,  if  possible,  a  Roman  Catholic  reaction, 
by  writing  an  argument  in  verse  between  the  milk  white 
Hind,  type  of  Catholicism,  and  the  Panther  whose  spots 
indicated  the  multitude  of  Protestant  heresies  and  schisms. 
His  object  in  speaking  through  beasts,  a  device  open 
enough  to  ridicule,  was  to  withdraw  the  argument  as 
much  as  possible  from  its  daily  association  with  passionate 


62  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

strife  of  men,  and  so  to  get  quieter  hearing.  A  very  lively 
caricature,  by  Matthew  Prior  and  Charles  Montague,  in 
the  manner  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham's  Rehearsal, 
called  "  the  Hind  and  Panther  transversed  to  the  Story 
of  the  Country  Mouse  and  the  City  Mouse,"  cleverly 
seized  what  in  art  was  the  weak  point  of  Dryden's  poem, 
though  for  the  end  it  had  in  view  the  fault  gave  strength. 
Five  years  and  a  half  before,  when  Dryden,  believing  him- 
self to  be  a  Protestant,  wrote  the  "  Religio  Laici,"  his  poem 
showed  that  he  was  Roman  Catholic  already.  The  theory 
of  a  Pope,  whose  absolute  opinion  shall  determine  contro- 
versies and  secure  Unity  of  the  faith  as  a  bond  of  peace, 
is  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Religio  Laici  that 

—  after  hearing  what  the  Church  can  say, 
If  still  our  Reason  runs  another  way 
That  private  Reason  'tis  more  just  to  curb 
Than  by  disputes  the  public  peace  disturb. 
For  points  obscure  are  of  small  use  to  learn : 
But  common  quiet  is  mankind's  concern. 

In  April  1688  James  II.  issued  again  his  Declaration 
of  Indulgence,  and  in  May  he  ordered  it  to  be  read  in 
all  Churches.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  six 
bishops,  one  of  them  Thomas  Ken,  the  author  of  an  Even- 
ing Hymn  still  in  wide  use  throughout  England,  sent  to 
the  King  a  petition  which  pointed  out  that  the  Declaration 
was  "  founded  upon  such  a  dispensing  power  as  hath  been 
often  declared  illegal  in  Parliament."  The  Petition  was 
hawked  about  London,  where  the  Declaration  was  read 
only  in  four  churches.  The  bishops  were  tried  for  libel 
and  acquitted.  The  King  had  a  camp  at  Hounslow  for 
the  maintenance  of  his  authority,  but  the  soldiers  in  camp 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATUIiE.  63 

joined  the  shouts  of  the  people  at  the  acquittal  of  the 
seven  bishops.  On  the  day  of  the  acquittal,  June  30th 
1688,  a  messenger  was  sent  to  invite  William  of  Orange, 
whose  fleet  entered  Torbay  on  the  anniversary  of  Gun- 
powder Plot.  On  the  19th  of  December  the  Prince  of 
Orange  held  a  Court  at  St.  James's.  James  the  Second 
took  shelter  with  the  King  of  France,  and  was  declared 
to  have  abdicated.  In  February  1689  William  and  Mary 
became  King  and  Queen  of  England,  accepting  with  the 
crown  those  definite  limitations  of  authority  which  were 
afterwards  embodied  in  the  Bill  of  Rights. 

If  the  friends  of  an  absolute  authority  were  defeated, 
their  opinions  were  not  changed.  Dryden  gave  up  his 
office  of  Poet  Laureate  by  refusing  to  take  the  required 
oaths  upon  its  renewal  under  a  new  sovereign.  King 
William  was  loyal  to  the  principles  of  the  English  Revo- 
lution, but  he  drew  England  into  his  continental  wars ; 
and  England  entered  into  them  the  more  willingly  because 
they  struck  at  Louis  XIV.  Thousands  of  Englishmen 
who  would  have  found  it  hard  to  understand  the  technical 
grounds  of  foreign  war  under  William  III.  and  Anne, 
were  content  to  strike  at  the  power  of  the  King  of  France, 
because  his  strength  might  be  against  the  liberties  of  Eng- 
land. Even  at  home  there  was  need  of  watchfulness. 
John  Locke  returned  to  England  in  the  ship  that  brought 
Queen  Mary,  and  together  with  the  Revolution  came 
at  once  a  fit  interpretation  of  its  meaning.  In  1689  and 
1690  Locke  produced  "a  Letter  concerning  Toleration 
in  Religion,"  and  maintained  his  positions  against  attack ; 
he  also  published  "  Two  Treatises  of  Government,"  in 
one  of  which  he  demolished  Filmer's  theory  of  the  divine 
origin  of  absolute  authority,  and  in  the  other  he  set  up 


64  A    GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

the  true  theory  of  Civil  Government.  He  published  also 
in  1690  his  "  Essay  concerning  Human  Understanding," 
of  which  the  purpose  was  to  persuade  men  of  the  limits 
of  the  knowable  and  win  them  from  the  waste  of  strength 
upon  vain  argument  over  questions  which  no  man  could 
determine.  Locke  was  one  of  the  men  of  science  to 
whose  energies  new  force  had  been  given  since  the  days 
of  Francis  Bacon.  The  continued  energy  is  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  1687,  the  year  of  James  the  Second's  Dec- 
laration of  Indulgence,  was  the  year  in  which  Isaac 
Newton  published  his  "  Principia,"  which  included  the 
demonstration  of  his  theory  of  gravitation.  Locke  had 
been  associated  with  the  group  of  scientific  men  at  Ox- 
ford, and  out  of  inclination  towards  useful  science,  had 
made  physic  his  profession.  But  the  times  bred  thought 
as  to  the  constitution  of  a  state.  Lord  Shaftesbury,  when 
Lord  Ashley,  had  been  drawn  towards  Locke  by  the  wis- 
dom of  his  political  reasonings,  and  had  assisted  in  deter- 
mining the  bent  of  his  scientific  study  towards  the 
constitution  of  society.  Then  Locke's  writings  were  of 
Civil  and  Religious  Liberty,  of  Education,  including  care 
of  health,  of  the  conservation  of  intellectual  energy,  so 
that  it  might  be  spent  only  upon  useful  discussion,  and 
upon  the  maintenance  of  Christianity  by  taking  it  directly 
from  its  source,  without  reference  to  the  vain  efforts  of 
later  disputants  to  define  what  lies  beyond  the  bounds 
of  human  knowledge.  Locke,  who  was  deeply  religious, 
taught  that  man's  senses  are  the  gates  by  which  all  human 
knowledge  enters,  and  that  we  cannot  form  a  conception 
of  any  thing  that  lies  wholly  outside  the  range  of  our 
experience.  Matters  of  faith,  he  said,  are  above  reason, 
not  opposed  to  reason ;  we  can  have  no  higher  assurance 


OF  ENGLISH  LITEBATUBE.  65 

of  truth  than  the  Word  of  Gocl.  Having,  therefore,  con- 
vinced ourselves  by  reason  of  the  authority  of  the  book 
from  which  we  draw  our  religion,  we  take  simply  its  teach- 
ing upon  spiritual  things,  and  rest  upon  that,  as  sufficient. 
We  pass  the  bounds  of  human  understanding  when  we 
cumber  revealed  truth  with  definitions  of  our  own. 

At  the  beginning  of  William  the  Third's  reign  Locke's 
argument  for  Toleration  in  Religion  which  time  and  ex- 
perience have  now  taught  almost  all  Englishmen  to  take 
as  matter  of  course,  was  distinctly  opposed,  on  the  old 
ground  that  it  destroyed  Unity  of  the  Church  and  opened 
the  door  to  heresy  and  schism.  The  truth  was  not  yet 
learned  that  uniformity  of  opinion  is  unattainable,  and 
that  the  Church  of  a  free  people  cannot  comprehend  the 
nation  unless  it  allow  room  for  wide  varieties  in  critical 
opinion.  If  we  can  be  content  with  bringing  all  into  one 
brotherhood  by  maintenance  of  the  one  spirit  of  religion, 
we  may  not  only  bind  a  nation,  but  bind  also  the  nations 
into  one. 

James  the  Second  had  persecuted  the  Scotch  Covenant- 
ers, keen  Puritans  bitterly  hostile  to  Catholicism.  Oppo- 
nents of  the  King's  claims  to  authority  were  paired  with 
the  Scotch  Covenanters,  who  fed  on  whig,  sour  whey,  and 
so  they  were  dubbed  Whigs.  The  Irish  were  Roman 
Catholics,  and  among  the  Irish  there  were  notorious 
thieves  called  tories ;  Tories  therefore,  became  the  return 
nickname  for  the  King's  friends  as  supporters  of  a  Roman 
Catholic  reaction  and  the  King's  exemption  from  control 
of  law.  In  those  days  a  man  was  Whig  or  Tory  as  he 
had  good  or  ill  will  to  the  settlement  made  by  the  English 
Revolution.  The  stumble  of  his  horse  that  caused  William 
the  Third's  death  was  ascribed  to  a  mole's  breaking  of  the 


66  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

soil.  The  mole  was  afterwards  toasted  by  those  who 
desired  a  second  restoration  of  the  Stuarts.  Thus  Sir 
Walter  Scott  made  in  his  "  Waverley  "  the  Laird  of  Bal- 
mawhipple  call  for  a  bumper  "  to  the  little  gentleman  in 
black  who  did  such  service  in  1702,  and  may  the  White 
Horse  "  (of  the  House  of  Hanover)  "  break  his  neck  over 
a  mound  of  his  making." 


OF  ENGLISH  LITEllATUIiE.  67 


CHAPTER  III. 

FROM  THE  EEIGN  OF  ANNE  TO  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA. 

Queen  Anne  came  to  the  English  throne  in  March 
1702  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven,  a  well  meaning  woman, 
kindly,  religious,  and  with  a  mind  somewhat  enfeebled  by 
domestic  grief.  On  the  29th  of  Juty  1700  she  had  lost, 
in  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  the  only  child  surviving  of 
seventeen  that  had  been  born.  She  had  then  a  close 
friendship  with  Marlborough's  wife,  calling  herself  in  their 
correspondence  Mrs.  Morley,  and  Lady  Marlborough  Mrs. 
Freeman.  After  the  death  of  her  last  child  her  signature 
changed  from  "  Your  faithful  Morley "  to  "  Your  poor 
unfortunate  faithful  Morley."  Devoted  to  the  English 
Church  and  its  ecclesiastical  system,  Anne  would  not  take 
the  sacrament  before  the  clergy,  and  those  first  fruits  and 
tenths  which  had  of  old  time  been  yielded  to  the  Pope 
and  which  were  added  by  Henry  VIII.  to  the  Crown 
revenue,  Queen  Anne,  on  the  6th  of  February,  1704, 
which  was  her  birthday  and  also  a  Sunday,  gave  as  a 
birthday  offering  to  the  poorer  clergy  of  the  Church. 
The  fund  is  still  so  applied,  under  the  name  of  Queen 
Anne's  Bounty.  It  may  be  taken  as  another  indication 
of  the  character  of  Queen  Anne,  that  she  gave  out  of  her 
first  year's  civil  list  a  hundred  thousand  pounds  to  relieve 
burdens  of  the  people. 

About  six  months  before  the  death   of  William   III., 


68  A   GLANCE  AT  TIIE  PAST 

Anne's  father,  James  II.,  had  died  in  France,  and  Louis 
XIV.  defied  William  by  acknowledging  the  son  of  James 
II.  King  of  England.  This  act  sounded  again  a  note  of 
war,  and  Anne's  first  speech  in  Parliament  maintained 
war.  It  also  repeated  a  recommendation  of  Union  be- 
tween England  and  Scotland ;  which  after  much  difficult 
negotiation  was  finally  arranged  in  July  1706,  to  date 
from  the  1st  of  May  1707,  Great  Britain  being  chosen  as 
the  name  for  the  United  country. 

Queen  Anne  had  no  ill  will  to  her  own  family ;  the  bias 
of  her  mind  was  towards  authority,  and  through  her  devo- 
tion to  the  established  Church  she  could  perhaps  be  made 
an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  those  who  were  unfriendly 
to  the  settlement  made  by  the  Revolution.  But  the  ways 
of  politicians  on  both  sides  had  in  those  days  become  very 
crooked.  What  little  there  was  of  a  highminded  states- 
manship was  often  lost  among  lowthoughted  cares  of  a 
political  life  in  which  few  men  kept  to  a  straight  path, 
subordinating  passion  and  ambition  to  the  public  good. 
The  great  currents  of  opinion  were  still  flowing  in  accord- 
ance with  a  fixed  natural  law,  but  they  struck  on  mud- 
banks  with  which  the  whole  stream  was  becoming  choked, 
and  were  thus  for  a  time  deflected  and  defiled. 

The  first  zeal  of  the  Tories  was  for  a  renewal  of  strong 
war  against  dissent.  This  was  in  right  accordance  with 
the  belief  still  prevalent  that  the  desired  Unity  of  the 
Church  was  to  be  secured  by  a  common  agreement  upon 
points  of  discipline  and  doctrine.  To  this  form  of  zeal, 
Defoe  opposed  in  1702  an  ironical  reduction  to  absurdity 
of  the  policy  of  persecution,  called  "the  Shortest  Way 
with  the  Dissenters."  He  was  condemned  to  imprison- 
ment and  set  in  the  pillory  on  each  of  the  last  three  days 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  69 

of  July  1703.  "  A  Hymn  to  the  Pillory,"  which  he  wrote 
for  distribution  to  the  crowd,  caught  easily  the  ears  and 
understandings  of  the  people.  The  flowergirls  were  about, 
and  Defoe's  pillory  was  strewn  with  roses.  Defoe's  pillory 
is  a  new  starting  point  for  English  Literature.  With  De- 
foe especially  it  may  be  said  that  we  have  the  beginning 
of  a  form  of  literature  written  with  the  desire  to  reach  all 
readers.  The  French  critical  influence  with  its  purblind 
classicism,  its  servitude  to  forms,  its  false  image  of  dignity 
and  its  low  dread  of  the  simplicity  which  it  accounted 
"low,"  was  still  cherished  with  much  solemn  regard. 
From  that  which  called  itself  polite  society  the  old  large 
and  healthy  life  seemed  to  be  gone.  Not  out  of  the  for- 
malism of  French  critics,  but  out  of  the  national  life  came 
health.  Defoe  went  from  his  pillory  to  prison  where  his 
durance  was  not  very  strict,  and  began  to  issue  on  the 
19th  of  February  1704  his  journal  known  as  the  "  Re- 
view," which  came  out  twice  a  week  until  1705,  and  then 
three  times  a  week  till  1713,  when  Anne's  reign  was 
drawing  to  a  close.  It  was  the  first  journal  in  England 
that  gave  thoughtful  comment  upon  public  affairs.  In 
this  paper  Defoe  kept  guard  upon  the  constitution,  and  a 
supplement  to  it,  in  which  he  dealt  by  slight  machinery  of 
a  club  with  questions  of  minor  morals,  must  have  sug- 
gested to  Richard  Steele  his  "  Tatler." 

Jonathan  Swift  published  in  1704  his  "  Battle  of  the 
Books,"  based  on  a  small  controversy  born  of  a  small 
reaction  against  dead  worship  of  the  dead,  with  not  much 
life  in  the  argument  on  either  side.  It  includes  the  pleas- 
ant dialogue  between  the  spider  and  the  bee,  in  which  the 
spider  is  the  modern,  and  the  bee  the  ancient,  who  seeks 
only  what  is  beautiful  in  nature  to  draw  from  it,  as  the 


70  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

bee  seeks  honey  and  wax,  "the  two  noblest  of  things, 
which  are  sweetness  and  light."  "A  Tale  of  a  Tub," 
published  by  Swift  in  the  same  volume,  was,  in  the  inter- 
est of  Christian  charity,  a  witty  satire  on  the  controversies 
that  caused  Roman  Catholic,  English  churchman  and  Dis- 
senter, Peter,  Martin  and  Jack,  to  damage  and  soil  the 
coats,  —  clothing  of  righteousness,  —  their  Father  gave 
them.  It  was  a  plea  for  common  fellowship  and  good 
will,  in  which  Martin  fared  better  than  Peter  and  Jack, 
while  each  might  think  himself  ill  treated.  Addison  de- 
lighted in  Swift's  wit,  but  Queen  Anne  thought  that  the 
book  ought  not  to  have  been  written  by  a  clergyman. 
Swift's  genius  was  more  robust  than  Addison's.  John 
Forster  in  his  fragment  of  Swift's  life  has  given  the  lines 
of  "Baucis  and  Philemon"  as  Swift  originally  wrote  them. 
Addison  persuaded  Swift  to  much  alteration.  "We  may 
now  compare  the  first  draft  with  the  revision,  and  see 
very  distinctly  where  there  was  strength  lost  by  Swift's 
acceptance  of  wrong  principles  of  criticism  then  in  fashion. 
While  Swift  was  in  London,  he  amused  the  town,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  year  1708,  with  an  attempt  to  bring  into 
disrepute  the  astrological  almanacs  that  fostered  super- 
stition. Under  the  name  of  Isaac  Biekerstaff,  who  pro- 
fessed himself  to  be  indeed  an  astrologer,  he  predicted  the 
day  of  the  death  of  one  of  the  chief  makers  of  these 
almanacs,  John  Partridge.  When  the  day  was  passed, 
Partridge's  death  was  described  in  another  pamphlet. 

Richard  Steele  began  his  "  Tatler  "  in  1709,  when  this 
joke  was  still  fresh,  and  Isaac  Biekerstaff  the  astrologer 
thus  came  to  be  a  central  figure  in  that  series  of  essays. 
The  success  of  "  the  Tatler,"  which  was  wholly  designed 
by  Steele,  established  the  periodical  essay  as  a  force  in 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  71 

literature.  "  The  Tatler "  was  a  penny  paper  that  ap- 
peared three  times  a  week.  When  its  success  was  already 
assured,  Addison  contributed,  and  when  271  numbers  had 
been  published,  Steele  dropped  "the  Tatler"  to  revive  it 
a  few  weeks  later,  under  a  new  name,  "  the  Spectator,"  as 
a  daily  essay.  He  was  still  the  sole  proprietor  and  editor, 
but  his  friend  Addison  helped  actively.  By  the  founding 
of  these  papers  Steele  gave  Addison  to  English  Litera- 
ture. The  design  of  Steele  in  Tatler  and  Spectator, 
which  he  brought  his  friend  Addison  to  share,  was  by 
issue  of  short  unassuming  essays,  untouched  by  the  bit- 
terness of  political  controversy,  to  assist  in  restoring  to 
English  society  the  wholesome  tone  lost  in  the  days  of 
Charles  the  Second.  The  fashion  of  speech  that  degraded 
womanhood,  and  affected  ridicule  of  marriage  Steele 
battled  against  with  his  kindly  wit.  One  of  the  most 
pathetic  of  the  sketches  in  "  the  Tatler  "  was  a  picture  of 
a  happy  home,  and  of  the  void  made  by  the  loss  of  wife 
and  mother.  The  weak  vanities  that  had  been  fostered 
in  women  by  a  low  form  of  worship,  Steele  and  Addison 
touched  with  the  kindliest  of  satire.  The  foppish  affec- 
tation of  profanity  and  other  stains  upon  the  manners 
of  the  day,  were  not  overlooked,  and  in  Steele's  writing 
there  was  an  earnest  effort  to  break  down  the  conven- 
tional opinion  that  supported  duelling.  When  the  political 
movements  of  Queen  Anne's  reign  led  at  last  to  question 
whether  the  party  of  reaction  might  not  succeed  in  its 
schemes  for  a  reversal  of  the  settlement  of  the  succession 
after  the  Queen's  death,  Steele  would  no  longer  bind  him- 
self to  shut  out  political  discussion  from  his  papers.  He 
brought  "  the  Spectator "  to  an  end,  established  in  its 
place  "  the  Guardian,"  went  on  to  "  the  Englishman  "  and 


72  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

by  a  pamphlet  on  "the  Crisis"  exposed  himself  to  the 
wrath  of  a  Tory  House  of  Commons.  But  there  really 
was  at  that  time  a  danger  to  the  country,  clear  enough  to 
all  who  read  in  any  detail  the  records  of  Anne's  reign. 
The  queen's  unexpected  death  by  apoplexy  on  the  1st  of 
August  1714  deprived  plotters  of  time  for  the  maturing  of 
their  plans.  Steele's  pamphlet  against  attempts  to  under- 
mine the  Constitution,  for  which  he  was  expelled  from  a 
Tory  House  of  Commons,  was  submitted  to  the  criticism 
of  Addison  and  others  before  publication.  It  had  for  its 
sole  object  to  save  Englishmen  from  danger  of  ignorance 
upon  a  vital  question,  by  setting  forth,  with  exact  citation 
of  documents,  what  was  meant  by  the  English  Constitu- 
tion and  what  was  the  settlement,  and  the  purpose  of  the 
settlement  of  the  succession  to  the  Crown.  When  Addi- 
son wrote  of  Steele's  plain  speaking  in  those  critical 
times  "  I  am  in  a  thousand  troubles  for  poor  Dick,  and 
wish  his  zeal  for  the  public  may  not  be  ruinous  to  him- 
self," he  spoke  with  his  own  natural  timidity,  and  indi- 
cated a  relation  between  public  and  private  interests  that 
Steele  never  could  have  recognized.  Wherever  Steele 
and  Addison  were  fellow-workers,  Steele,  whose  whole 
heart  was  his  friend's,  gave  to  his  friend  alone  the  praise. 
But  of  the  two  characters  Steele's  was  the  more  vigorous, 
and  Addison  climbed  highest  when  he  followed  where 
Steele  led. 

Addison's  sensitive  nature  gave  refinement  to  his  humour, 
and  delicacy  to  his  sense  of  the  charm  of  style.  He  was 
the  best  critic  of  his  day,  and  the  more  readily  accepted 
because  he  shared  to  some  extent,  conventional  opinions 
of  his  time.  He  enjoyed  "Chevy  Chase  "  and  "the  Babes 
in  the  Wood,"  and  did  so  for  good  human  reasons.     But 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  73 

when  lie  tried  in  Spectator  papers  to  show  cause  for  his 
enjoyment,  it  was  by  suggesting  resemblances  to  Horace 
and  Vergil.  There  are  passages  in  Addison's  criticisms 
of  "  Paradise  Lost "  by  which  he  made  Spectator  papers 
a  means  of  rescuing  Milton  from  the  prejudices  of  the 
day,  in  which  the  prejudices  themselves  govern  his  argu- 
ment; and  what  we  might  now  look  upon  as  the  weak 
part  of  his  criticism,  "was  in  his  own  time  a  safeguard  to 
his  reputation.  But  there  was  nothing  conventional  in 
Addison's  tastes.  The  sympathetic  insight  of  genius  and 
the  religious  depths  of  character  caused  him  to  fasten  only 
on  that  which  was  good;  all  that  could  be  affected  by 
convention  was  his  manner  of  accounting  critically  for  his 
right  impressions.  His  judgment  could  be  warped  also  by 
kindly  feeling  when  the  work  of  a  friend  like  Ambrose 
Philips  was  in  question. 

Alexander  Pope  was  twenty-three  years  old  in  1711 
when  the  Spectator  was  appearing.  In  that  year  he  pub- 
lished his  poem  called  "An  Essay  on  Criticism,"  written 
two  years  earlier.  It  followed  the  fashion  of  critical 
France  in  writing  about  writing,  or  rather,  since  its  theme 
was  criticism,  in  writing  about  writing  about  writing.  But 
though  of  the  school  of  Boileau,  and  written,  of  course, 
in  couplets  after  the  French  style  of  versification  which 
was  already  overrunning  English  Literature,  Pope's  "  Es- 
say on  Criticism"  had  an  English  ring.  It  was  good- 
natured,  too,  and  taught  the  censorious  that 

Good  nature  and  good  sense  must  ever  join ; 
To  err  is  human,  to  forgive  divine. 

In  the  "  Rape  of  the  Lock  "  Pope,  at  the  close  of  Queen 
Anne's  reign,  amused  society  with  a  mock  heroic  that 


74  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

again  was  in  the  school  of  Boileau,  for  it  might  never 
have  been  written  had  not  Boileau  written  "  Le  Lutrin." 
But  in  the  charm  of  style  Pope  here  excelled  his  master. 
Though  a  few  touches  of  English  earnestness  are  in  the 
treatment  of  a  frivolous  theme,  as  in  the  furnishing  of 
Belinda's  toilet  table  with  "Puffs,  powders,  patches, 
Bibles,  billets  doux,"  there  is  nothing  to  cloud  the  play- 
fulness of  satire  upon  a  fashionable  world  exceeding  busy 
about  nothing. 

But  there  was  now  rising  in  Europe  another  mood  than 
that  of  light  trifling  with  triflers.  Society  in  England 
was  little  helped  by  the  personal  influence  of  the  two 
first  Kings  of  the  House  of  Hanover  who,  after  Queen 
Anne's  death,  duly  assured  the  Protestant  succession  to 
the  English  throne.  In  France  the  social  corruption  and 
the  miseries  of  the  people  had  kept  pace  together.  The 
resources  of  an  absolute  dominion  had  been  strained 
cruelly  to  pay  for  triumphs  and  calamities  of  war.  The 
people,  as  Voltaire  said,  were  dying  to  the  sound  of  Te 
Deunis.  The  death  of  Louis  XIV.  followed  not  long  after 
that  of  Queen  Anne.  In  1715  Louis  XV.  came  to  the 
French  throne  as  a  child,  and  from  1715  to  1726  there  was 
the  Regency  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  It  is  hard  to  say 
whether  the  profligacy  and  meanness  of  French  fashionable 
life  was  at  its  worst  under  the  Regency  or  during  the 
personal  reign  of  the  King,  which  lasted  until  1774  and 
developed,  among  those  who  dreamed  of  better  things,  a 
deep  contempt  for  the  corruptions  of  what  they  supposed 
to  be  an  overcivilized  society.  There  was  an  excess  of 
formal  outward  polish  to  supply  the  place  of  frank  sin- 
cerity, and  there  was  the  self-satisfaction  of  men  who  had 
no  conception  of  the  use  of  life.     Pierre  Bayle,  who  had 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  75 

keen  reason  to  know  the  baseness  of  the  dragonnades  in 
favour  of  religion,  confounded  religion  itself  with  the 
degradation  of  it  into  miserable  forms,  and  looking  out 
upon  the  evils  of  society,  asked  whether  a  just  God  could 
have  created  such  a  world  as  he  then  saw.  In  1695-6  he 
published  in  Holland  his  "  Dictionnaire  Historique,"  in 
which  lives  of  men  were  told  by  an  acute  and  honest 
scholar  with  continual  suggestion  of  doubt  whether  the 
actual  state  of  Man,  and  even  the  course  of  Nature,  did 
not  make  faith  in  the  existence  of  a  God  impossible.  This 
work,  which  was  translated  into  English  in  1711,  and  for 
its  abundance  of  curious  and  suggestive  matter  was  a 
favourite  with  the  religious  Addison,  may  be  conveniently 
taken  as  a  starting  point  for  the  form  of  scepticism  devel- 
oped throughout  Europe,  but  especially  in  France,  during 
the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  not  now  as  in  Milton's 
time,  a  question  of  the  justice  or  injustice  involved  in 
certain  theological  doctrines,  as  of  election  or  predestina- 
tion, but  it  struck  deeper,  and  looking  out  upon  the  world 
asked  boldly,  Can  this  be  a  world  that  a  just  God  is  gov- 
erning? Bayle  died  in  1706,  and  in  1710  the  philosopher 
Leibnitz,  writing  in  Paris,  published  in  French  his  "  The- 
odicee,"  which  attempted  answer  to  Bayle's  questioning. 
He  began  with  the  suggestion  that  Bayle  is  now  in  heaven  ; 
escaped  from  this  world  in  which  he  could  see  only  a  part 
of  the  divine  scheme,  and  that  imperfectly,  he  is  where  he 
may,  perhaps,  look  out  upon  the  whole  and  doubt  no  more. 
This  pointed  to  the  main  argument  of  Leibnitz,  that  our 
limited  view  makes  us  imperfect  judges  of  the  ways  of  God. 
We  cannot  know  what  is  man's  place  in  the  Universe,  nor 
on  this  earth  can  we  see  more  than  a  small  part  of  the 
whole  scheme  of  creation.     In  what  we  can  see,  Leibnitz 


76  A    GLANCE  AT   TIIE  PAST 

argued,  wo  can  find  justice  and  wisdom,  doubts  begin 
where  our  light  fails.  But  the  patent  shams  and  unreali- 
ties of  that  which  called  itself  the  polite  life  of  the  time  — 
though  to  us  they  are  now,  both  in  France  and  England, 
most  easily  traceable  to  their  causes  —  disheartened  many 
earnest  men,  especially  the  young.  In  1706  Bernard 
Mandeville  published  in  England  a  little  fable  in  five  hun- 
dred lines  of  verse  entitled  "  The  Grumbling  Hive,  or  the 
Knaves  turned  Honest."  Bees  in  a  hive,  he  said,  are  like 
men  in  society,  they  have  trades  and  professions  as  men 
have,  and  in  a  certain  hive  every  bee  became  so  painfully 
conscious  of  the  knavery  of  all  his  neighbours,  that  they 
resolved  to  become  honest.  When  they  did  so,  there  was 
no  more  need  for  lawyers,  because  there  was  no  injustice 
to  guard  against ;  no  need  for  doctors,  because  there  was 
an  end  of  ways  of  life  and  ways  of  eating  that  produced 
disease;  no  need  of  merchants,  because  there  was  no  de- 
mand for  foreign  luxuries.  Trades  based  upon  waste  and 
folly  disappeared,  and  thus  with  honesty  came  poverty. 
The  standing  army  was  put  down,  because  the  honest 
hive  was  capable  of  no  aggressive  war.  It  was  attacked, 
as  defenceless,  by  the  bees  of  other  hives.  Every  bee  then 
served  as  a  volunteer.  The  enemies  were  driven  back, 
but  honesty  had  found  its  way  at  last  to  such  simplicity 
of  life  that  the  hive  itself  was  judged  to  be  unnecessary. 
The  whole  swarm,  therefore,  flew  back  to  its  original  home 
in  a  hollow  tree.  When  we  consider  that  the  course  of 
reaction  against  evils  of  an  artificial  life  was  on  its  way 
to  an  emphatic  maintenance  of  the  innocence  of  the  state 
of  nature,  the  place  of  Bernard  Mandeville's  satire  in  the 
main  current  of  European  thought,  already  flowing  to- 
wards a  new  Revolution,  becomes  very  distinct.     First  an- 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  77 

notated  in  1714,  in  1723  "the  Fable  of  the  Bees"  was 
reproduced,  with,  a  full  prose  commentary,  in  two  volumes, 
enforcing  the  idea  that  civilization  is  based  on  the  vices 
of  mankind. 

Three  years  later,  in  November  1726,  appeared  Swift's 
"  Gulliver's  Travels,"  a  book  by  no  means  to  be  isolated 
from  the  rest  of  Literature  as  representing  Swift's  personal 
and  peculiar  scorn  of  the  meanness  and  corruption  of  hu- 
man society.  The  voice  of  its  time  is  in  this  book  also, 
but  had  a  more  intense  expression  through  the  genius  and 
the  character  of  Swift.  To  bring  home  to  men  the  little- 
ness of  the  lives  about  which  they  were  meanly  occupied, 
Swift  used  his  vivid  imagination  in  the  shaping  of  a  book 
of  travels  full  of  wonders  as  a  fairy  tale,  but  addressed  by 
him  to  men  rather  than  children.  With  Lemuel  Gulliver 
among  the  Lilliputians,  we  see  civilization  in  a  baby  show. 
Only  change  the  size  of  men,  and  let  an  inch  stand  for  a 
foot,  and  how  trivial  we  seem  in  our  own  eyes.  Reverse 
the  glass,  and  imagine  men  and  all  that  belongs  to  them, 
and  all  their  little  pets  and  fumes,  as  they  would  be  looked 
down  upon  by  a  race,  say,  twelve  times  taller,  to  do  that 
we  visit  Brobdignag.  If  a  few  feet  of  size  make  so  much 
difference  in  our  power  of  discovering  the  smallness  of 
that  which  we  are  apt  to  look  upon  as  the  chief  work 
of  life,  how  must  our  petty  jealousies  and  ambitions,  our 
glorying  in  stars  and  garters,  seem  to  the  angels  who  can 
look  down  from  the  height  of  heaven  ?  In  the  voyage  to 
Laputa  we  have  satire  on  man's  pride  in  his  own  knowl- 
edge, and  in  the  voyage  to  the  Houyhnhnms,  where  the 
innocent  life  of  one  of  the  lower  animals  is  compared  with 
the  corrupt  life  of  man  calling  himself  civilized,  the  satire 
fiercely  expresses  what  was  then  the  growing  sense  of  evil 


78  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

in  society.  Rousseau  was  arguing  a  few  years  later  that 
man  is  the  worse  for  civilization ;  that  the  natural  man, 
the  noble  savage,  having  no  property  and  therefore  no 
inducement  to  theft,  and  being  in  other  ways  without 
temptation  to  crime,  lived  a  purer  and  a  better  life  than 
the  man  warped  by  civilization.  Swift  made  a  like  con- 
trast when  he  placed  man's  artificial  and  dishonest  life 
below  the  life  of  a  horse. 

Two  or  three  years  after  the  appearance  of  Gulliver's 
Travels,  one  of  the  kindliest  of  poets,  John  Gay,  wrote  a 
■satire  on  society  less  forcible  but  quite  as  fierce.  His 
"Beggar's  Opera,"  produced  with  very  great  success  in 
January  1728,  was  full  of  under-suggestion  that  the  ways 
of  the  great  politicians  were  one  with  the  ways  of  thieves. 
A  paper  in  "  the  Craftsman  "  at  once  boldly  applied  it  all 
to  actual  life,  and  the  refusal  of  permission  to  act  the 
sequel,  entitled  "  Polly,"  told  how  the  official  world  had 
understood  its  satire.  "  Polly  "  was  printed ;  and  if  in  the 
Beggar's  Opera  one  might  enjoy  the  art  without  attending 
to  the  social  satire,  in  "  Polly  "  the  satire  is  forced  strongly 
on  attention.  Its  whole  plan  is  to  place  a  picture  of  de- 
graded civilization  between  pirates  and  savages,  and  show 
society  upon  a  level  with  the  pirates,  or  below  them,  and 
the  natural  man,  the  savage,  far  exalted  above  both. 

In  the  days  of  "  Gulliver's  Travels  "  and  "  the  Beggar's 
Opera,"  and  of  Pope's  attack  on  the  small  end  of  Litera- 
ture in  his  "  Dunciad,"  appeared  in  English  poetry  the 
first  clear  signs  of  a  reviving  sense  of  Nature.  Within  a 
few  months  of  one  another  appeared  D}*er's  "  Grongar 
Hill,"  Allan  Ramsay's  "Gentle  Shepherd,"  and  "Winter," 
the  first  published  part  of  Thomson's  "  Seasons."  "  Gron- 
gar Hill "  was  a  simple  utterance  of  the  sense  of  natural 


OF  ENGLISH  LITEBATUEE.  79 

beauty  during  a  walk  up  the  low  hill  by  the  Towy  at 
whose  foot  stands  the  house  in  which  Dyer  was  born. 
The  poet  blends,  as  he  should  blend,  human  feeling  with 
his  poem  so  as  to  mark  harmony  between  the  world 
within  man  and  the  world  without.  He  even  escapes 
from  the  all  pervading  couplets  of  tensyllabled  lines,  to 
the  old  octosyllabic  measure.  Allan  Ramsay,  who  began 
life  as  a  poor  lad  working  on  the  banks  of  a  leadmine,  had 
a  true  songnote  of  his  own,  and  the  lyric  parts  are  very 
pleasant  in  his  pastoral  play.  In  Thomson's  "  Seasons," 
the  diction  is  Latin,  rhetorical ;  but  no  work  of  that  day 
approached  "  the  Seasons  "  in  the  fulness  and  variety  of 
its  expression  of  Nature  in  all  her  moods.  If  Thomson 
delights  in  sending  his  nouns  abroad  each  with  three 
Latin  adjectives  in  attendance,  the  Latin  adjectives  give 
more  than  eye  service  ;  each  helps  to  the  exact  expression 
of  a  thought.  Through  the  whole  poem  there  runs  also  a 
main  thought  summed  up  in  the  closing  Hymn 

"  These  as  they  change,  Almighty  Father,  these 
Are  but  the  varied  God." 

The  whole  work  is  shaped  into  a  poet's  answer  to  those 
who  held  that  Nature  denied  God.  Thomson's  "  Hymn 
of  the  Seasons  "  was  written  in  1728.  In  1732  Pope  pub- 
lished the  first  part  of  his  "Essay  on  Man,"  containing 
the  first  two  epistles,  the  third  epistle  followed  in  1733, 
the  fourth  in  1734,  and  in  1738  he  summed  up  that  work 
with  his  "  Universal  Prayer."  Pope  wrote  in  Queen 
Anne's  reign  the  "  Essay  on  Criticism  "  and  "  Rape  of  the 
Lock."  In  the  reign  of  George  I.  he  made  money  by  fol- 
lowing the  classical  fashion  with  a  translation  of  Homer. 
In  the  reign  of  George  II.  years  were  ripening  his  own 


80  A    GLANCE  AT  TUE  PAST 

sense  of  life,  and  the  reaction  against  frivolity  and  formal- 
ism had  carried  the  course  of  Literature  beyond  the  shal- 
lows. There  was  a  waste  of  marsh  on  either  side,  but  the 
main  stream  rolled  through  it  now  as  a  deep  river  under 
leaden  skies.  Pope's  writing  in  this  part  of  his  life  deals 
with  the  larger  problem  of  society.  His  "  Essay  on  Man  " 
was  a  distinct  effort  to  meet  in  his  own  way  the  doubts 
that  had  been  spreading  since  the  time  of  Bayle.  His 
argument  was  that  of  Leibnitz's  Theodicde,  a  book  he  had 
not  read.  It  had  entered  into  daily  reasonings  of  men,  and 
Pope  may  very  well  have  owed  his  argument  to  Leibnitz 
without  having  taken  it  directly  from  him.  In  his  reason- 
ing for  evidence  of  divine  wisdom  even  in  the  passions 
and  the  selfishness  of  man,  he  framed  a  little  scheme  of 
his  own.  His  Epistles  and  Satires  he  regarded  as  so  many 
expressions  of  his  argument  reduced  from  theory  to  prac- 
tice. Two  years  after  Pope  had  published  his  fourth 
Epistle  and  two  years  before  he  printed  his  Universal 
Prayer,  Joseph  Butler,  in  1736,  furnished  his  very  different 
contribution  to  the  same  argument,  in  a  book  studied  to 
this  day  at  the  English  Universities,  arguing  the  "Analogy 
of  Religion,  Natural  and  Revealed,  to  the  Constitution  and 
Course  of  Nature."  Two  years  after  its  publication  Butler 
was  made  a  bishop. 

In  those  days  John  Wesley  at  Oxford,  aided  by  his 
brother  Charles,  was  preparing  to  strike  a  more  effectual 
blow  against  doubts  based  upon  the  insincerities  of  man. 
When  Swift  published  "  Gulliver's  Travels  "  John  Wesley, 
twenty-three  years  old,  obtained  his  Fellowship  at  Lincoln 
College  Oxford.  His  reaction  against  formalism  in  reli- 
gion was  in  the  direction  of  sincerity.  He  and  his  brother 
persuaded  some  of  their  fellow  students  to  join  them  in 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  81 

living  before  the  world,  fearless  of  its  conventions,  as  well 
as  they  could,  the  Christian  life  as  Christ  had  taught  it. 
They  were  a  society  at  first  of  fifteen  students  laughed  at 
as  "the  Godly  Club,"  "the  Bible  moths,"  and  by  a  name 
that  stuck  to  them,  as  "  Methodists."  They  visited  the 
sick  and  the  prisoners,  and  strove  to  "  recover  the  image 
of  God."  George  Whitefield,  who  went  as  a  poor  servitor 
to  Pembroke  College,  was  admitted  of  their  number. 
Wesley's  growing  influence  upon  men  from  that  time 
forth  bore  witness  to  the  power  of  a  deep  sincerity.  He 
died  at  the  age  of  eighty-eight,  after  sixty-five  years  of 
ministration.  For  more  than  fifty  years  he  preached  two, 
three  or  four  sermons  a  day,  and  travelled  about  four 
thousand  five  hundred  miles  in  each  year,  carrying  his 
enthusiasm  from  place  to  place.  What  he  asked  of  his 
hearers  was  that  they  would  awake  and  arise,  put  aside  all 
idle  formalism,  and  join  themselves  to  his  society,  not  by 
pledging  themselves  to  particular  doctrinal  opinions,  but 
by  a  resolve  as  far  as  possible  to  live  really  the  Christian 
life,  and  avoid  every  custom  of  the  world  that  was  in 
conflict  with  it.  George  Whitefield,  who  began  his  work 
under  the  influence  of  Wesley,  spread  similar  teaching, 
with  a  little  more  regard  to  doctrine,  preaching  commonly, 
like  Wesley,  in  the  open  air,  to  audiences  that  might  be 
reckoned  by  tens  of  thousands.  When  John  Wesley  died, 
he  left  an  organized  religious  society  of  140,000  members, 
in  Britain  and  America.  True  it  is  that  "the  effectual 
fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth  much."  This 
great  effort  to  restore  sincerity  to  the  religion  of  the  coun- 
tiy,  —  which  no  fault  of  Wesley's  has  placed  outside  the 
established  Church  of  England  —  had  its  rise  in  one  of  the 
great  centres  of  English  thought,  the  University  of  Oxford. 


82         .  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

While  the  battle  for  a  freer  because  truer  life  was  thus 
being  fought  in  England,  evidence  was  everywhere  of  the 
sickness  of  mind  due  to  an  unwholesome  condition  of 
society.  As  the  body  sickens  in  confinement,  so  may  the 
mind.  There  is  more  evidence  of  hypochondria  and  actual 
insanity  among  writers  in  the  eighteenth  century  than  at 
any  other  time.  This  was  the  case  probably  among  men 
of  all  occupations.  Healthy  men  were  touched  with  the 
gloom  of  bondage.  Robert  Blair's  poem  on  "  the  Grave  " 
published  in  1743,  dwells  far  more  on  the  mortality 
within  the  churchyard  than  upon  the  spiritual  life  be- 
yond. Its  most  vigorous  passage  paints  fear  of  the 
churchyard  ghost.  Edward  Young  published  in  1742-3 
his  "Night  Thoughts  on  Life,  Death  and  Immortality," 
occasioned  by  the  death  of  a  married  stepdaughter  in 
1736,  of  her  husband  in  1740,  and  of  his  own  wife  in  1741. 
The  gloom  in  it  was  implied  by  the  name  of  its  sequel 
"The  Consolation,"  but  the  note  of  melancholy  runs 
through  all.  There  is  less  gloom  in  Gray's  "  Elegy  in  a 
Country  Churchyard  "  completed  a  few  years  later,  but 
the  sickness  of  the  times  was  felt  also  by  Gray.  In  his 
"  Ode  on  a  Distant  Prospect  of  Eton  College,"  the  man- 
ner of  the  musing  is  characteristic.  Now,  a  crowd  of 
boys  in  a  playground  would  suggest  to  a  moralist  fresh 
energies  of  a  generation  that  shall  carry  on  the  labour  of 
the  present.  To  Gray  it  suggested  nothing  but  the  mis- 
eries in  store  for  them  when  they  should  be  men : 

Alas,  regardless  of  their  doom 
The  little  victims  play. 

William  Collins,  whose  Odes  were  published  in  1747, 
died  insane.     Samuel  Johnson,  with  a  scrofulous  taint  of 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  83 

the  blood  that  throughout  his  life  threatened  insanity, 
battled  against  poverty  without  and  disease  within.  His 
firm  resolve  and  his  strong  hold  upon  religion  gave  him 
mastery,  and  he  came  to  be  the  main  support  of  the  best 
intellectual  life  of  his  time.  No  thought  was  healthier 
than  his  of  the  strong  soul  that  overcame  in  daily  combat 
the  infirmities  of  bodily  disease.  When  the  wit  and  fash- 
ion of  London  gathered  at  last  around  the  shambling 
shortsighted  man,  still  destitute  of  the  world's  wealth, 
whose  features  had  been  made  harsh,  and  manners  rudely 
abrupt,  by  the  physical  condition  over  which  in  all  essen- 
tials he  was  master,  his  fearless  sincerity  gave  to  his  life 
a  grandeur  that  men  felt.  He  taught  others  to  look,  like 
himself,  through  all  the  fleeting  accidents  of  life  to  that 
in  which  a  man  can  really  live,  and  there  were  none  who 
came  to  know  him  without  learning  how  pure  a  spring  of 
love  and  tenderness  kept  the  whole  nature  fresh  within. 
Firmly  attached  to  the  established  Church,  Johnson  was 
a  stout  Tory  on  the  religious  side  of  his  life  and  held  the 
First  Georges  in  such  contempt  as,  it  may  be  said,  their 
lives  had  duly  earned  for  them.  But  no  delusions  of 
party  feeling  dimmed  his  sense  of  human  brotherhood, 
and  of  the  large  interests  of  humanity.  Negro  slavery 
was  to  his  mind  so  gross  a  wrong  that  he  startled  a  polite 
company  one  day  with  a  toast  "  to  the  next  Insurrection 
of  the  Blacks."  The  political  corruption  of  his  time 
caused  Johnson  in  his  Dictionary,  which  appeared  in 
1755,  to  define  "Pension"  as  "a  grant  made  to  any  one 
without  an  equivalent,"  and  "  Pensioner  "  as  "  a  slave  of 
state,  hired  by  a  stipend  to  obey  his  master."  In  1760, 
when  he  was  fifty-two  years  old,  his  friends,  holding  it 
unendurable  that  one  who  had  served  England  so  well 


84  A   GLANCE  AT  TEE  PAST 

should  live  in  poverty,  obtained  a  pension  for  him  of 
.£300  a  year.  When  told  what  had  been  done,  he  took 
a  day  for  reflection,  and  then  accepted.  But  his  acts 
showed  in  what  spirit  he  took  the  grant.  For  some  of 
the  money  wasted  yearly  in  political  corruption  he  would 
find  a  better  use.  He  sheltered  in  his  home  five  other 
persons  who  deserved  help  and  without  it  would  have 
sunk  to  ruin.  Johnson  lived  with  them  as  his  friends, 
respected  them,  secured  for  them  respect.  One  was  a 
negro  servant  of  a  friend  who  could  no  longer  keep  him. 
Johnson  took  charge  of  him  and  he  was  known  as  Dr. 
Johnson's  man,  but  Johnson  gave  him  liberal  education, 
wrote  to  him  as  "  Dear  Francis,"  subscribing  "  Yours 
affectionately,"  and  through  him  made  living  protest 
against  the  notion  that  man  can  be  made  other  than  man 
by  the  colour  of  his  skin.  Johnson's  pension  sustained 
five  lives  and  gave  him  means  of  occasional  help  to  suf- 
ferers whom  he  came  near.  Once  when  he  found  a  ruined 
woman  who  had  fainted  in  the  streets  he  took  her  up  on 
his  broad  back,  carried  her  to  his  home,  and  made  what 
effort  he  could  to  save  her.  The  best  life  of  the  time, 
the  life  that  was  struggling  to  lift  the  age  above  its  petty 
formalisms  to  a  large  sense  of  what  men  really  live  for, 
breathed  and  moved  in  Johnson.  He  was  sixty-nine  years 
old  when  he  began,  and  seventy-three  when  he  completed, 
in  1781,  his  "  Lives  of  the  Poets."  When  the  booksellers 
asked  him  to  write  them  for  an  edition  of  the  poets  then 
in  preparation  and  requested  him  to  name  his  price,  he 
asked  only  £200.  They  gave  him  more,  though  still  less 
than  the  work  was  worth,  but  when  the  insufficient  pay- 
ment was  suggested  to  him  as  a  matter  of  complaint,  he 
answered,  "  No,  it  is  not  that  they  gave  me  too  little,  but 


OF  ENGLISn  LITERATURE.  85 

that  I  gave  them  too  much."  He  was  no  grumbler  him- 
self, and  no  encourager  of  idle  grumbling.  "  I  hate,"  he 
said,  "a  complainer."  It  was  characteristic  of  French 
critical  influence  that  "  the  Poets  "  according  to  the  book- 
sellers, that  is  to  say,  the  salable  Poets,  all  wrote  after 
the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  Johnson's  power  had 
grown  with  the  time,  and  he  so  far  shared  the  reaction 
against  formalism  in  his  stjde,  that  the  English  of  his 
"  Lives  of  the  Poets  "  differs  distinctly  from  the  English 
of  his  "  Rambler."  In  these  latter  days  Johnson  said  of 
Robertson  the  historian,  "  If  his  style  is  bad,  that  is,  too 
big  words  and  too  many  of  them,  I  am  afraid  he  caught 
it  of  me."  Johnson  died  in  December  1784,  four  or  five 
years  before  the  fall  of  the  Bastille.  William  Words- 
worth was  a  boy  of  fourteen  when  Johnson  died,  and 
William  Cowper  was  then  writing  his  "  Task." 

If  we  glance  at  the  historians  we  still  find  the  drift  of 
the  time  marked  by  the  course  of  English  Literature. 
There  had  been  imperial  annals,  developed  after  the  inven- 
tion of  printing  from  the  familiar  form  of  the  monastic 
chronicle ;  there  had  been  also  histories  of  special  periods, 
like  Bacon's  "  History  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  the  Seventh  " 
or  Clarendon's  "  History  of  the  Rebellion  ;  "  but  there  had 
been  no  attempt  to  trace  cause  and  effect  through  the 
whole  sequence  of  English  history.  David  Hume,  who 
began  his  literary  life  in  1738,  at  the  age  of  27,  with  a 
"  Treatise  on  Human  Nature,"  and  in  his  subsequent 
writings  on  Politics  and  the  Principles  of  Morals  had 
blended  the  sceptical  spirit  of  the  time  with  clear  discus- 
sion of  the  chief  problems  of  life,  was  made  in  1752 
Librarian  to  the  Faculty  of  Advocates  in  Edinburgh. 
Access  to  books  suggested  to  him  the  writing  of  what  was 


86  A    GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

first  planned  as  a  suggestive  special  history.  A  quarto 
volume  on  the  reigns  of  James  I.  and  Charles  I.  appeared 
in  1745.  It  was  decried  and  neglected.  Only  forty-five 
copies  were  sold  in  a  twelvemonth.  It  was  not  Hume's 
first  experience  of  neglect,  but  he  always  had  worked  on, 
unchecked  by  apparent  failure.  Having  published  in  the 
intervening  year  a  "  Natural  History  of  Religion,"  Hume 
continued  his  English  Historv  in  1756  from  the  Death  of 
Charles  I.  to  the  Revolution.  In  1759  he  prefixed  to  his 
published  work  a  History  of  the  House  of  Tudor,  and  in 
1761  he  stepped  farther  back,  and  thus  completed  the  first 
"  History  of  England "  that  attempted  to  bring  all  into 
one  narrative,  told  throughout  from  the  writer's  point  of 
view  with  a  philosophical  sense  of  the  sequence  of  events. 
With  the  scepticism  of  the  reaction  yet  more  marked,  and 
a  warmth  of  imagination,  wanting  in  Hume,  to  give  life  to 
a  style  still  dignified  with  Latin  English  Edward  Gibbon, 
in  the  year  of  Hume's  death,  1776,  published  the  first  vol- 
ume of  his  "  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire." 
The  last  volume  was  published  a  year  before  the  French 
Revolution.  Volney's  "  Ruins  of  Empires  "  was  published 
in  France  in  September  1791,  and  Gibbon's  theme  was 
suggested  to  him  by  the  decrepitude  of  the  French  mon- 
archy, and  the  vague  general  sense  of  corrupt  governments 
upon  the  road  to  ruin.  Among  the  ruins  of  the  Capitol 
it  had  occurred  to  him  that  the  story  of  the  fall  of  the 
great  power  of  Rome  would  tend  to  show  what  makes 
the  weakness  and  the  strength  of  states. 

Pictures  of  individual  life  were  at  the  same  time 
developed  by  the  novelists,  who  first  became  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  a  power  in  Literature.  Defoe  broke  this 
new  ground  with  his  "  Robinson  Crusoe  "  in  1719,  which 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  87 

did  not  call  itself  a  novel,  but  was  an  exact  imitation  of  a 
book  of  Voyage  and  Adventure.  In  the  loneliness  of 
Crusoe  on  his  island  Defoe  expressed  his  own  sense  of 
political  isolation.  The  interest  in  the  book  lies  in  its 
picture  of  self-reliance  tempered  with  religious  faith. 
Defoe's  other  novels  also  imitated  other  forms  of  litera- 
ture, for  vivid  expression  of  life  as  it  really  is.  The  exam- 
ple set  by  his  "  Robinson  Crusoe  "  spread  to  Germany, 
and  gave  rise  there  to  many  imitations.  Then  followed 
in  1726  "  Gulliver's  Travels."  Pastoral  heroic  French 
romances  kept  the  field  as  novels  proper  until  Richardson, 
Fielding  and  Smollett  first  gave  dignity  to  the  novel  as  a 
distinct  form  of  English  Literature  upon  which  the  highest 
genius  may  be  wisely  spent.  Richardson  began  in  1741 
with  his  "  Pamela,"  which  attacked  conventional  notions 
of  dignity  by  giving  the  name  of  a  romance  heroine  to  a 
servant  girl  Pamela  Andrews.  Richardson,  who  was  not 
himself  free  from  all  prejudices  of  his  day,  rewarded 
virtue  in  his  Pamela  by  giving  her  for  husband  a  rascal 
who  happened  also  to  be  the  Squire.  Henry  Fielding  was 
prompted  to  ridicule  this  weak  point  in  a  book  professing 
to  advance  morality,  and  began  to  write  adventures  of 
Pamela's  brother  Joseph,  as  a  jest  on  hers.  But  having 
begun  to  write  a  novel,  Fielding  found  his  strength. 
"Joseph  Andrews,"  published  in  1742,  was  very  much 
more  than  a  jest  upon  Pamela.  Life  was  painted,  follies 
of  society  were  satirized,  and  in  Parson  Adams  there  was 
Fielding's  picture  of  a  Christian  and  a  scholar  who,  hav- 
ing the  soul  of  a  gentleman,  is  brought  by  his  simplicity 
into  the  most  ridiculous  positions,  but  whom  nothing  can 
make  ridiculous.  He  is  rolled  in  a  pigsty  and  is  not  the  less 
a  gentleman,  towards  whom  we  feel  kindly  affection  and  a 


88  A    GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

high  respect.  In  1748  Richardson  followed  with  his  best 
novel,  Clarissa  Harlowe,  where  a  shrewd  religious  man's 
quick  interest  in  life,  kindliest  feeling,  and  the  giving  of 
his  whole  mind  to  his  work  with  a  complete  faith  in  his 
own  creation,  enabled  him  to  produce  the  effect  of  a  work 
of  genius,  without  the  aid  of  genius  in  producing  it.  In 
1749  Fielding  also  published  his  chief  novel,  Tom  Jones. 
It  was  his  chief  novel  because  largest  of  design,  an  image 
of  the  world  of  man,  and  in  Tom  Jones  and  Blifil  of  the 
right  and  the  wrong  way  of  taking  life.  Tom  Jones  errs 
much,  but  he  is  what  he  seems  to  be,  and  out  of  his  own 
sincerity  has  faith  in  the  sincerity  of  others.  Blifil  excels 
him  in  observance  of  the  forms  of  worth,  but  he  is  in- 
sincere, and  acts  in  the  belief  that,  others  being  like  him- 
self, no  man  is  to  be  trusted.  The  book  breathes  health. 
The  convention  of  the  time  did  not  forbid  a  direct  pictur- 
ing of  its  evil ;  but  the  coarse  scenes  in  Fielding's  novels 
are  given  always  for  what  they  are,  with  no  false  gloss 
upon  them.  Whenever  Tom  Jones  sins  against  the  purity 
of  his  love  for  Sophia  his  wrong  doing  is  made  in  some 
way  to  part  him  from  her,  and  when  he  pleads  towards 
the  close  of  the  story,,  the  difference  between  men  and 
women,  and  the  different  codes  of  morality  by  which  they 
are  judged  in  society,  Fielding  makes  Sophia  answer,  "  I 
will  never  marry  a  man  who  is  not  as  incapable  as  I  am 
myself  of  making  such  a  distinction."  The  charm  of 
genius  enters  into  the  whole  texture  of  thought  in  Field- 
ing's novels.  A  page  of  his  is  to  a  page  of  Richardson's  as 
silk  to  sackcloth.  In  his  next  novel  "  Amelia  "  Fielding 
sought  to  paint  the  excellence  of  womanhood.  Every- 
where his  vigour  is  tempered  with  a  kindly  humour  that 
causes  us  to  read,  seldom  laughing,  but  always,  as  it  were 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  89 

with  an  undersmile,  in  a  good  humour  that  gives  ready 
entrance  to  the  wisdom  of  the  thought  so  uttered.  There  is 
no  bitterness  even  when,  in  his  keen  irony  upon  false  esti- 
mates of  human  greatness,  "  Jonathan  Wild  the  Great," 
a  notorious  thief  and  thiefcatcher,  stands  as  a  type  of  the 
Great  Alexanders,  as  in  Gay's  "  Beggar's  Opera "  Pea- 
chum  and  Locket  were  meant  to  be  taken  for  statesmen  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  The  youngest  of  this  group  of 
novelists,  Tobias  Smollett,  produced  his  first  novel,  "  Rod- 
erick Random,"  in  1748,  the  year  of  Richardson's  "Cla- 
rissa ;  "  his  last  novel,  "  Humphrey  Clinker,"  a  few  months 
before  his  death.  He  died  in  1771.  Smollett's  novels 
were  light-hearted  pictures  of  life  and  character  as  they 
appeared  to  a  quick  witted  observer  who,  though  he 
painted  as  an  observer  from  outside,  never  missed  the 
points  that  made  a  sketch  of  incident  or  character  amus- 
ing. He  was  a  hard-working  man  of  letters.  His  con- 
tinuation of  Hume's  History  of  England  into  his  own 
times  ended  with  the  year  1762,  and  was  published  in 
1760.  It  had  in  its  day  a  success  as  great  as  that  obtained 
in  our  own  day  by  Macaulay's  History,  but  time  has  told 
upon  its  reputation. 

Another  novelist  was  Laurence  Sterne  whose  "Tris- 
tram Shandy,"  rich  in  playful  wit,  began  to  appear  in 
1759.  The  last  published  volume  of  a  book  that  was 
not  finished  and  had  no  aim  or  end  beyond  amusement, 
appeared  in  1767.  Sterne's  "Sentimental  Journey,"  pub- 
lished in  1768,  the  year  of  his  death,  owes  part  of  its 
character  to  the  fact  that  it  was  written  a  few  years  after 
the  chief  sentimental  writings  of  Rousseau. 

The  reaction  in  France  was  advancing.  The  corruption 
of  Society  was  inveighed  against  by  young  philosophers, 


90  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

one  of  whom,  Helvetius,  said  that  if  an  angel  came  from 
heaven  to  teach  men  to  live  reasonable  lives,  he  would  no 
more  be  listened  to  than  the  philosopher  who  was  accused 
to  the  Athenian  youths  of  pronouncing  tarts  to  be  un- 
wholesome. Voltaire  represented  the  revolt  of  the  intel- 
lect against  bondage  of  convention,  and  Rousseau  the  revolt 
of  the  emotions. 

Rousseau  had  rejected  the  positive  idea  of  Duty,  and 
taken  Sensibility  for  rule  of  conduct.  "The  Heart  is 
good,"  he  said,  "  listen  to  it ;  suffer  yourself  to  be  led  by 
Sensibility  and  you  will  never  stray,  or  your  strayings 
will  be  of  a  creditable  sort."  This  outbreak  of  the  emo- 
tional part  of  human  nature  after  long  suffering  from  the 
restraints  of  a  cold  formalism,  had  its  form  determined  by 
Rousseau's  genius  and  eloquence.  In  1750  Rousseau  ob- 
tained, by  arguing  against  the  benefits  of  civilization,  the 
prize  offered  by  the  Academy  of  Dijon  for  an  essay  on 
the  origin  of  the  inequality  among  men,  and  whether  it  is 
authorised  by  natural  law.  In  arguing  afterwards,  with 
delightful  shrewdness,  against  an  advocate  of  civilization, 
Rousseau  exalted  man  in  a  state  of  nature,  traced  still 
to  overcivilization  the  corruption  of  mankind,  and  said, 
though  he  thought  it  a  hard  thing  to  say,  that  the  savage 
on  the  banks  of  the  Orinoco  who  discovered  that  by  bind- 
ing a  board  to  the  skull  of  an  infant  he  could  so  flatten  it 
as  to  repress  the  development  of  the  brain  was  a  bene- 
factor to  society.  In  1761  Rousseau  represented  life  in 
action  from  his  sentimental  point  of  view  in  the  "Nou- 
velle  Heloise,"  in  1762  he  published  under  the  name  of 
"  Emile  "  his  view  of  education,  and  in  the  same  year  his 
"  Contrat  Social,"  a  scheme  of  society  idealised  in  his 
own  way  from  the  principles  of  the  English  Revolution 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  91 

and  the  Dutch  Declaration  of  Independence.  This  book 
had  more  influence  than  any  other  publication  on  the 
views  of  men  who  endeavoured  to  shape  in  France  an  ideal 
Commonwealth  after  the  fall  of  monarchy  at  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1789. 

In  England  as  in  France  writers  dwelt  upon  the  ine- 
qualities among  men.  Goldsmith's  "  Traveller,"  published 
in  1764,  glanced  over  Europe,  saw  in  each  country  its  bless- 
ing and  its  curse,  and  dwelt  upon  the  contrast  in  England 
between  luxury  and  poverty.    The  thought  in  the  Traveller 

Have  we  not  seen  at  Pleasure's  lordly  call 
The  smiling,  long  frequented  village  fall  ? 

was  fully  developed  afterwards,  in  the  poem  of  "  the 
Deserted  Village ; "  but  it  is  not  to  be  overlooked  that  in 
the  last  lines  of  "  the  Traveller  "  Goldsmith  pointed  to  a 
remedy  for  ills  of  life,  not  in  political  revolution,  but  in 
that  development  of  the  true  life  within  each  heart  and 
home  towards  which  we  in  the  nineteenth  century  are 
labouring.  This  note  was  struck  clearly  by  Goldsmith 
and  by  Cowper  before  it  became  the  master  note  of 
Wordsworth's  verse,  and  master  thought  of  a  succeeding 
generation.  The  like  pathos  and  kindly  satire  against 
false  sentiment  in  Goldsmith's  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  pub- 
lished in  1766,  caused  that  book  to  bring  some  of  its  own 
health  to  the  mind  even  of  young  Goethe.  Moreover,  if 
one  Scotsman  wrote  "  the  Man  of  Feeling  "  another  wrote 
in  those  days  "  the  Wealth  of  Nations  "  and  helped  soci- 
ety by  laying  firm  foundations  for  the  study  of  political 
economy.  Adam  Smith's  "  Wealth  of  Nations  "  was  pub- 
lished in  the  same  }rear  as  "the  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  and 
four  years  after  Rousseau's  "  Contrat  Social." 


92  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

William  Cowper,  withdrawn  from  active  life  by  trie 
infirmity  that  caused,  even  in  his  calm  country  retire- 
ment, the  gloom  of  insanity  to  fall  upon  his  cheerful 
mind,  knew  the  world  and  its  stir  only  from  afar.  But 
he  expressed  in  his  "  Task,''  published  in  1785,  the  feeling 
caught  by  his  sensitive  mind  from  the  sense  of  oppres- 
sion that  pervaded  Europe.  He  blended  with  generous 
expression  of  the  English  love  of  liberty,  his  pictures  of 
what  seemed  the  decay  of  society,  the  conventions  of  the 
town  and  of  the  church,  the  unjust  wars,  cruelties  of  the 
slave  trade,  and  exclaimed 

My  ear  is  pained, 
My  soul  is  sick,  with  every  day's  report 
Of  wrong  and  outrage  with  which  earth  is  filled. 
There  is  no  flesh  in  man's  obdurate  heart, 
It  does  not  feel  for  man. 

He  denounced  the  Bastille  four  years  before  its  fall : 

Ye  horrid  towers,  the  abode  of  broken  hearts ; 
Ye  dungeons,  and  ye  cages  of  despair, 
That  monarchs  have  supplied  from  age  to  age 
With  music  such  as  suits  their  sovereign  ears, 
The  sighs  and  groans  of  miserable  men  ! 
There's  not  an  English  heart  that  would  not  leap 
To  hear  that  ye  were  fallen  at  last. 

The  Bastille  fell  on  the  14th  of  July  1789.  "Liberty, 
Fraternity,  Equality  "  was  the  cry,  and  the  hope  of  thou- 
sands of  enthusiastic  dreamers,  whose  feeling  was  that 
ascribed  by  Wordsworth  to  the  Solitary  in  his  early  days, 

For,  lo,  the  dread  Bastille 
With  all  the  chambers  in  its  horrid  towers, 
Fell  to  the  ground ;  by  violence  overthrown 
Of  indignation,  and  with  shouts  that  drowned 


OF  ENGLISH  LITEIiATUIiE.  93 

The  crash  it  made  in  falling.     From  the  wreck 
A  golden  palace  rose,  or  seemed  to  rise, 
The  appointed  seat  of  equitable  law 
And  mild  paternal  sway. 

The  political  feeling  of  those  times  in  England  is 
illustrated  throughout  by  the  speeches  and  writings  of 
Edmund  Burke.  At  the  age  of  about  seven  and  twenty- 
he  published,  in  1756,  a  satire  on  the  French  philosoph- 
ical tendency  to  contrast  the  virtues  of  the  natural  man 
with  the  vices  of  a  corrupt  civilization.  When  the  impe- 
rial policy  of  George  III.,  and  of  those  who  called  them- 
selves the  King's  friends,  was  taxing  the  American  colonies 
for  the  profit  of  England,  and  the  colonists  objected  to 
taxation  by  a  Parliament  in  which  they  were  not  repre- 
sented, Burke's  rare  ability  was  made  known  to  the  Mar- 
quis of  Rockingham.  He  became  Rockingham's  private 
secretary  in  July  1765,  at  the  time  when  Rockingham, 
becoming  premier,  had  the  great  difficulty  of  the  day 
to  deal  with.  Burke  was  essentially  conservative.  He 
dreaded  Revolution  and  all  sudden  violence  of  change. 
His  policy  in  the  American  dispute  aimed  at  the  staying 
of  the  strife.  You  claim  imperial  right  to  tax ;  claim  it, 
then,  he  said.  The  American  colonists  refuse  to  bear 
imperial  taxation ;  then  do  not  impose  it.  Satisfy  your- 
selves with  formal  declaration  of  your  right ;  and  them, 
by  not  using  it.  That  was  the  policy  on  which  Rocking- 
ham acted.  If  the  king  and  his  friends  had  been  wiser 
than  they  were,  there  would  have  been  no  war  with  the 
American  colonies,  no  Declaration  of  Independence ;  no 
founding  in  the  new  world  of  a  great  English  Republic 
to  take  large  part  in  the  building  of  man's  future.  The 
blindness  of  rulers  was,  in  this  case,  like  the  blindness  of 


94  A    GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

rulers  in  the  days  before  the  English  Revolution,  only 
opening  the  way  to  better  things.  When  cause  and  effect 
lie  both  before  us  in  the  remoter  and  the  nearer  past,  we 
learn  to  look  with  Milton  in  calm  of  mind  upon  the  dark- 
est and  most  doubtful  times,  for  even  through  the  foolish- 
ness of  man  God's  will  is  done.  Burke  pleaded  for  the 
American  colonists,  that  he  might  avert  violent  change. 
But  by  the  outbreak  of  the  great  French  Revolution, 
not  only  was  a  violent  change  begun,  but  it  was  a  change 
of  the  kind  that  he  most  dreaded.  Idealists  were  making 
a  clean  sweep  of  government,  law,  and  many  of  the  most 
cherished  traditions  and  beliefs  of  men,  to  build  up  all 
anew  according  to  their  fancies.  The  enthusiasm  ran  as 
fire,  the  neighbour's  house  burned,  England  might  burn 
next.  With  passionate  eloquence  Burke  warred  against 
the  French  Revolution.  Feelings  like  his  prompted  the 
part  taken  by  England  in  the  attempt  to  crush  it  out  by 
force.  War  against  French  Revolution  was  the  school  in 
which  Napoleon  was.  bred,  and  after  a  short  peace  there 
followed  war  against  Napoleon  which  lasted  until  Water- 
loo. 

There  was  no  failure  of  the  French  Revolution  that  at 
the  close  of  the  last  century  represented  over  all  Europe 
the  revolt  against  forms  of  authority  from  which  the  life 
was  gone.  Failure  was  of  the  mistaken  means,  not  of  the 
aims.  Thomas  Campbell's  "  Pleasures  of  Hope,"  pub- 
lished in  the  last  year  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  its 
author  was  but  a  youth  of  twenty-one  or  twenty-two,  was 
as  the  last  word  of  the  dying  century  to  its  successor,  full 
of  ardent  expectation  of  such  a  future  as  wisdom  of 
Greece  or  Rome  never  conceived. 

The  man  whom  Rousseau  and  others  had  supposed  to 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATUEE.  95 

be   overcivilized,  was   not   half    civilized.     It   would  be 

overpraise  of  human  society,  even. as  it  now  is,  to  describe 

it  as  half  civilized.     But  the  hope  of  a  high  future  was 

set  by  the  young  poet  of  hope  against  all  the  wrongs  and 

cruelties  that  were  about  him  in  the  world.     I  watch,  he 

said, 

I  watch  the  wheels  of  Nature's  mazy  plan 
And  learn  the  futiu-e  by  the  past  of  man. 

When  William  Wordsworth  took  his  stand  in  the 
"  Lyrical  Ballads,"  published  in  1798,  against  all  insin- 
cerity of  diction,  and  sought  to  draw  from  man  the  truest 
note  in  the  great  harmony  of  Nature,  he  felt,  as  every 
poet  of  that  day  felt  keenly,  the  discords  of  life  and 
"  what  man  has  made  of  man." 

Robert  Burns,  true  poet  of  nature,  published  his  first 
volume  of  poems  at  Kilmarnock  in  the  autumn  of  1786. 
In  1787  the  fame  of  "the  Ayrshire  Ploughman"  spread 
through  England.  Until  his  death  in  1796  he  poured  out 
natural  song,  often  tinged  deeply  with  the  feeling  of  the 
time.  He  sent  a  couple  of  carronades  as  a  present  to 
the  National  Assembly. 

Wordsworth's  sense  of  what  man  has  made  of  man 
caused  him  not  only  to  be  one  of  those  Englishmen  whose 
hearts  leapt  at  the  fall  of  the  Bastille,  but  drew  him  in 
his  youth  into  direct  fellowship  with  the  French  Revolu- 
tionists. He  too  believed,  in  his  inexperience,  that  a  great 
effort  of  humanity  might  in  a  few  years  turn  wrong  into 
right.  He  shared  the  brightest  dreams  of  the  first  days 
of  such  effort. 

Through  this  living  interest  in  the  great  hope,  and  this 
participation  in  its  energies,  Wordsworth  was  first  among 


96  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST 

all  poets  to  read  the  riddle  of  the  failure  that  caused 
many  to  despair.  That  which  had  been  sought  was  rightly 
sought.  The  great  awakening  to  sense  of  a  life  for  man 
far  other  than  that  which  had  bred  impatience  of  its  mean- 
ness, was  a  real  awakening,  from  which  the  nations  must 
not  sink  back  into  sleep.  But  Burke  was  right  in  his  dis- 
trust of  the  means  by  which  a  regeneration  was  to  be 
attained.  A  state  can  be  no  better  than  the  citizens  who 
are  its  substance.  Transmute  these.  The  process  of  their 
transmutation  is  slow,  painfully  slow ;  but  the  way  is 
known,  and  it  is  the  only  way  that  can  lead  to  a  real  civili- 
zation of  the  world.  Here  and  there  some  man  lives  a 
noble  life,  wins  honour  from  all,  unless  his  work  be  such 
as  begets  blindness  of  party  strife,  and  he  is  remembered 
in  story  for  his  worthy  deeds.  Wordsworth  asked  boldly 
the  question, 

Why  is  this  glorious  creature  to  be  found 
One  only  in  ten  thousand  ?  What  one  is 
Why  may  not  millions  be  ? 

Endeavour  suddenly  to  change  the  characters  of  men  has 
failed,  but  there  remains  a  no  less  strenuous  resolve  to 
attain  that  at  which  the  Revolution  aimed.  Wordsworth 
himself  in  his  "Excursion,"  published  in  1814,  which  was 
a  poetical  expression  of  the  problem  of  society  as  he  then 
understood  it,  urged  the  duty  of  the  state  to  provide  edu- 
cation for  every  child  born  in  the  land,  as  a  first  condition 
of  the  shaping  of  good  citizens.  He  held,  and  rightly 
held,  that  free  England's  place  was  still  that  of  a  leader 
among  the  nations,  and  that  from  her  the  light  was  to 
spread,  by  advance,  through  her,  of  a  true  culture, 


OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  9? 

Even  till  the  smallest  habitable  rock 
Beaten  by  lonely  billows,  hear  the  songs 
Of  humanized  society. 

And  so  we  come  to  the  motive  force  that  directs  all  the 
best  energies  of  England  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria. 
We  have  seen  already  that  when  the  minds  of  men  are 
stirred  about  essentials,  life  finds  its  highest  utterance, 
and  Literature,  the  voice  of  life,  is  at  its  best.  For  this 
reason  there  was  in  England  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century  a  fresh  development  of  power.  The 
genius  of  Byron  represented  the  whole  passionate  move- 
ment of  the  Revolutionary  time,  and  most  clearly  ex- 
pressed sympathy  with  the  nations  who  desired  to  throw 
off  tyranny  and  be  themselves.  Shelley's  poetry  expressed 
the  pure  ideal  of  the  Revolution,  the  sense  of  what  hu- 
manity should  be  and  was  not,  resentment  of  all  that  was 
base,  and  confusion  of  the  God  whose  true' spirit  of  love 
and  justice  breathed  on  almost  every  page  of  Shelley's 
verse  with  an  image  of  God  that  dishonoured  Him,  and 
was  among  the  forms  made  to  be  broken.  Keats  had  the 
revived  sense  of  beauty  in  God's  world,  and  expressed 
through  it,  in  his  fragment  of  "  Hyperion,"  the  aspiration 
of  the  time.  As  the  old  Titans  gave  place  to  the  younger 
gods, 

So  on  our  heels  a  fresh  perfection  treads, 
A  power  more  strong  in  beauty,  born  of  us 
And  fated  to  excel  us. 

One  aid  to  the  work  of  our  time  has  come  from  the 
dying  out  of  prejudices  that  restrained  women  from  writ- 
ing. Jane  Austen's  novels  all  appeared  between  1811  and 
1818,  but  there  was  an  interval  of  fifteen  years  between 


98  A   GLANCE  AT  THE  PAST. 

the  writing  of  the  three  first  published  and  the  three  that 
followed.  She  painted  such  pictures  of  real  life  as  she 
had  seen  as  a  girl  in  a  quiet  country  parsonage.  Like 
Wordsworth,  she  sought  to  show  the  charm  that  lies  under 
the  common  things  about  us,  and  with  a  fine  feminine 
humour,  under  sentences  clear,  simple,  and  exactly  fitted 
to  expression  of  a  shrewd  good  sense,  she  came  nearer  to 
Fielding  than  any  novelist  who  wrote  before  the  reign  of 
Queen  Victoria.  Miss  Edgeworth  began  novel  writing 
in  Ireland  in  the  first  years  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
She  sketched  the  Irish  character  about  her  with  a  quick 
perception  that  tended  everywhere  to  correction  of  abuses 
and  increase  of  kindly  feeling.  From  her  the  greatest 
novelist  of  his  time,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  said  that  he  had 
the  first  impulse  to  write  novels  that  painted  Scottish 
character.  With  the  higher  genius  of  a  poet  colouring 
their  kindly  views  of  man  and  nature,  Scott's  novels  then 
became  for  many  minds  a  spring  of  health. 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OF  THOSE  WHO  WERE  OLD  AT  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE 
REIGN;  AND  OF  THE  POETS,  WORDSWORTH,  SOUTHEY, 
LANDOR. 

After  the  death  of  William  IV.  at  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning  on  the  20th  of  June  1837,  his  niece  Victoria 
Alexanclrina,  whose  father  died  within  the  first  year  of  her 
life,  and  who  had  been  quietly  educated  by  her  mother, 
became  Queen  of  England.  She  had  then  just  entered 
her  nineteenth  year.  The  duration  of  that  part  of  the 
Reign  of  Victoria  which  is  a  part  of  history  at  the  time 
when  this  narrative  is  written,  exactly  corresponds  with 
the  forty-four  years  and  four  months  of  the  whole  Reign 
of  Elizabeth. 

Most  of  the  great  poets  of  the  preceding  time  had  passed 
away.  Keats  died  in  1821;  Shelley,  in  1822;  Byron,  in 
1824  :  but  if  they  had  lived,  Keats  would  have  been  at  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  only  forty-one  years  old ;  Shelley, 
forty-five ;  and  Byron,  forty-nine.  Keats,  indeed,  was  a 
year  younger  than  Thomas  Carlyle,  with  whose  death  this 
narrative  closes.  Sir  Walter  Scott  had  been  dead  nearly 
five  years  in    June  1837.     He  was  a  year  younger  than 

99 


100  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Wordsworth,  who  lived  until  1850.  Coleridge,  who  was  a 
year  younger  than  Scott,  had  died  in  the  house  of  his 
friend  Mr.  Gillman  at  Highgate  in  July  1834.  His  eldest 
son  Hartley,  born  in  1796,  and  his  one  daughter  Sara, 
lived ;  and  there  was  in  each  of  them  a  touch  of  the 
father's  genius.  In  Hartley  Coleridge  there  was  a  touch 
also  of  his  father's  weakness.  He  obtained  a  fellowship  at 
Oriel  and  having  lost  it,  through  fault  of  his  own,  was  for 
a  time  in  London,  then  sought  unsuccessfully  to  earn  a 
livelihood  by  teaching,  and  depended  afterwards  upon  his 
pen.  He  had  published  in  1826  a  book  on  the  "  Worthies 
of  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire,"  and  a  volume  of  poems  at 
Leeds  in  1833.  He  lived  for  some  time  at  Rydal,  where 
he  died  in  1849.  His  poems  in  two  volumes,  and  a  volume 
of  "  Essays  and  Marginalia,"  were  edited  by  his  brother  in 
1851.  Hartley  Coleridge's  sister  Sara,  of  whose  training, 
in  her  earlier  years,  her  father's  friend  Southey  had  charge, 
married  in  1829  her  cousin  Henry  Nelson  Coleridge,  a 
Chancery  barrister.  During  the  first  years  of  the  Reign 
of  Victoria,  nephew  and  daughter  were  engaged  as  hus- 
band and  wife  in  cherishing  the  poet's  memory.  The 
husband  edited  "  Letters,  Conversations  and  Recollec- 
tions "  of  Coleridge  in  1836,  also  his  "  Table  Talk,"  and 
in  1839  his  "Literary  Remains"  in  four  volumes.  The 
wife  edited  in  1840  her  father's  "  Confessions  of  an  In- 
quiring Spirit,"  gave  a  new  edition  of  his  "  Biographia 
Literaria,"  in  1847,  and  his  "  Notes  and  Lectures  upon 
Shakespeare"  in  1849,  and  his  "Essays  on  his  own  Times." 
Henry  Nelson  Coleridge  died  in  1843.  Sara  Coleridge, 
who  published  also  in  1837  a  charming  fairytale  of  her 
own,  "  Phantasmion,"  lived  until  1852.  Her  "Memoirs 
and  Letters  "  were  edited  by  her  daughter  in  1873. 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  101 

Robert  Southey,  in  the  days  of  his  youth,  fired  by  the 
wild  hopes  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  sharing  its  re- 
sentment of  what  man  has  made  of  man,  had  planned 
with  Coleridge  and  other  kindred  spirits  a  retreat  from 
the  old  worn-out  world  to  the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna, 
where  they  were  to  found  an  all-equal-government,  a 
Pant-iso-cracy.  Since  they  would  need  wives  Southey 
had  suggested  three  Miss  Frickers  in  his  native  Bristol, 

Oct 

one  of  whom,  Edith,  he  marked  for  himself,  the  other  two 
might  become  —  did  become  —  wives  to  two  other  Pant- 
isocrats.  Coleridge  took  one  of  them,  Sara,  for  his  wife  ; 
and  Robert  Lovell,  who  died  young,  took  another.  When 
Lovell  died,  leaving  a  widow  with  an  infant,  Southey  was 
thrown  upon  his  own  resources,  with  a  hard  battle  to  fight, 
but  he  added  Lovell's  widow  and  child  to  his  own  domes- 
tic cares.  When  Coleridge  afterwards  was  ill  able  to 
help  himself,  much  of  the  burden  of  Coleridge's  family 
was  borne  also  by  his  hardworking  and  faithful  friend. 
Southey,  like  Coleridge,  after  experience  of  vanity  in  all 
the  hopes  inspired  by  the  French  Revolution,  lost  faith  in 
reform  sought  by  the  way  of  sudden  change,  and,  roughly 
speaking,  took  his  place  with  the  conservatives.  In  1813, 
on  the  death  of  Henry  James  Pye,  Southey  had  been  made 
Poet  Laureate.  He  was  Laureate,  therefore,  and  sixty- 
three  years  old  —  Wordsworth  was  sixty-seven  —  at  the 
accession  of  Victoria.  When  Southey  died,  in  1843,  he 
had  held  for  forty  years  the  office  which  then  passed  to 
his  friend  Wordsworth,  and  of  which  since  the  death  of 
Wordsworth  in  1850,  the  renewed  dignity  has  been  sus- 
tained by  Alfred  Tennyson. 

The  oldest  writers  who  lived  at  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  of  Queen  Victoria,  and  had  not  wholly  ceased  to 


102  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

produce,  were  Joanna  Baillie,  75  years  old;  Samuel 
Rogers,  74 ;  Robert  Plumer  Ward,  72 ;  Miss  Edgeworth, 
70;  and  Isaac  D'Israeli,  70.  Joanna  Baillie  had  pub- 
lished her  first  "Plays  on  the  Passions "  in  1798.  In  1809 
Walter  Scott  had  superintended  the  production  of  a  play 
of  hers  at  Edinburgh,  and  in  1836  she  had  published 
three  more  volumes  of  plays.  Though  her  plays  may  be 
little  read  in  future  time,  two  or  three  homely  ballads 
written  by  her  in  her  earlier  days,  such  as,  "  Woo'd  and 
Married  and  a' "  or  "  The  Weary  Pund  o'  Tow  "  will  live 
with  other  delicate  and  homely  pieces  which  have  the 
simple  tenderness  or  playfulness  of  old  ballads  that  were 
written  often,  there  is  reason  to  think,  by  cultivated  wo- 
men. So  Lady  Nairne  who  died  in  1845,  aged  79,  wrote 
"  the  Laird  o'  Cockpen,"  "  Caller  Herrin'  "  and  "  The  Land 
o'  the  Leal."  Joanna  Baillie  lived  very  quietly  at  Hamp- 
stead  during  the  first  fourteen  years  of  the  reign,  and  died 
at  the  age  of  89,  in  1851.  Miss  Edgeworth  died  two  years 
earlier,  and  though  her  active  life  as  an  author  closed  in 
1834,  she  published  a  last  novel,  "  Orlandino,"  in  the  year 
before  her  death. 

Samuel  Rogers  lived  to  be  yet  older  than  Joanna  Bail- 
lie.  His  age  was  74  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign,  and 
he  was  in  his  ninety-fourth  year  when  he  died,  in  Decem- 
ber, 1855.  His  old  age  was  not  spent  in  seclusion.  He 
was  a  banker's  son,  and  derived  wealth  in  after  life  from 
his  own  partnership  in  the  bank.  He  had  poetic  feeling, 
sociable  instincts,  a  shrewd  sharp  wit  in  conversation,  and 
a  ready  kindness.  If  he  had  been  born  poor,  he  might 
have  been  a  poet  of  considerable  power.  He  made  his 
reputation,  in  1792,  when  he  was  thirty,  with  "  the  Pleas- 
ures of  Memory."     It  was  the  best  of  a  group  of  books, 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  103 

"  Pleasures  of  Refinement,"  "  Pleasures  of  Charity,"  etc., 
which  had  been  suggested  to  imitative  writers  by  the 
success  of  Akenside's  "  Pleasures  of  Imagination."  Aken- 
side's  "  Pleasures  of  Imagination  "  was  a  rhetorical  poem, 
first  published  when  he  was  a  young  man,  and  in  good 
accordance  with  the  fashion  of  its  time.  Rogers's  "Pleas- 
ures of  Memory "  was  not  only  better  than  any  other 
imitation  of  Akenside,  but  it  was  better  than  Akenside. 
There  was  a  simpler  and  a  truer  grace  of  style,  due  partly 
to  change  of  literary  fashion ;  a  theme  pleasant  to  every 
reader ;  and  the  ease  of  a  man  of  taste  who  could  give 
and  take  refined  pleasure,  but  "  whose  sails  were  never  to 
the  tempest  given."  Samuel  Rogers  might  have  become 
an  English  author  of  great  mark  if,  at  some  time  before 
he  was  forty  years  old,  his  bank  had  broken.  His  poem 
of  "Italy"  was  published  in  an  elegant  manner,  and 
maintained  his  credit.  The  shrewd  wit  of  Rogers's  con- 
versation ought  to  have  shown  only  the  social  side  of  an 
intellectual  vigour  that  stirred  in  his  writing ;  but  as 
writer,  his  whole  vitality  was  never  shown.  In  the  reign 
of  Victoria  it  was  for  many  years  the  principal  charm  of  a 
social  breakfast  table.  Samuel  Rogers's  breakfasts  were 
in  the  reign  of  Victoria  what  suppers  at  the  Mermaid  had 
been  in  Elizabeth's  time ;  no  doubt  a  highly  civilized 
variation  from  the  older  fashion.  The  foremost  men  in 
politics,  literature  and  art  were  among  Rogers's  guests, 
and  in  the  wit  combats  the  venerable  host  could  parry 
and  thrust  with  the  nimblest. 

Robert  Plumer  Ward,  who  was  72  in  1837,  had  begun 
life  as  a  barrister,  and  in  1805,  having  entered  parliament, 
he  became  Under  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs  under 
Lord  Mulgrave.     In  1807  he  was  a  Lord  of  the  Admi- 


104  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ralty,  and  from  1811  to  1823,  when  he  retired  from  public 
life,  he  was  Clerk  of  the  Ordnance.  He  inserted  the 
name  Plumer  between  his  Christian  and  surname  to  please 
the  second  of  his  three  wives.  Robert  Plumer  Ward 
made  his  more  permanent  mark  as  a  writer  with  two 
novels,  "Tremaine"  in  1825  and  "De  Vere "  in  1827. 
They  painted  society  and  political  life,  and  in  society 
were  popular,  although  their  tone  was  that  of  a  thought- 
ful, cultivated  man  whose  speculations  touched  essentials 
and  who  asked  thought  from  his  reader.  Robert  Plumer 
Ward  continued  to  write  during  the  earlier  years  of  the 
reign  of  Victoria.  In  1838  he  published  "Illustrations 
of  Human  Life."  He  discussed  in  another  book  what  he 
took  to  be  "the  Real  Character  of  the  Revolution  of 
1688."  In  1841  and  1844  he  produced  novels,  "  De  Clif- 
ford," and  "  Chatsworth."  In  1846  he  died,  aged  81,  and 
in  1850  the  Hon.  E.  Phipps  published  his  "  Memoirs  and 
Literary  Remains." 

The  last  of  the  septuagenarians  who  remained  active 
after  the  accession  of  Victoria  was  Isaac  DTsraeli,  father 
of  a  more  famous  son.  He  was  the  son  of  a  Venetian 
merchant,  settled  in  England,  and  drawn  from  his  father's 
profession  by  a  love  of  books.  At  two  and  twenty  he 
printed  "  A  Poetical  Epistle  on  Abuse  of  Satire "  and 
in  1791,  at  the  age  of  24,  published  the  first  volume  of 
the  series  by  which  he  is  best  remembered,  "  The  Curi- 
osities of  Literature."  Two  years  later,  a  second  volume 
followed.  From  1794  to  1811  he  was  unsuccessfully 
endeavouring  to  earn  a  place  as  original  author,  by  poems, 
romances  and  novels.  In  1812  he  produced  another  book 
in  the  style  of  the  Curiosities  of  Literature,  called  "the 
Calamities  of  Authors ;  "  in  1814  followed  "  the  Quarrels 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  105 

of  Authors."  Then,  after  some  historical  disquisition  on 
James  I.,  with  which  he  began  the  expression  of  his  good 
will  to  the  Stuarts,  there  followed  in  1817  a  third  volume 
of  "  the  Curiosities  of  Literature."  This  being  the  work 
of  his  that  succeeded,  there  followed  in  1823  three  vol- 
umes of  a  second  series  of  "  Curiosities  of  Literature ; " 
after  which  he  produced,  in  1828-31,  five  volumes  of 
"  Commentaries  on  the  Life  and  Reign  of  Charles  the 
First."  The  last  of  Isaac  DTsraeli's  books  of  gatherings 
was  published  in  1841,  two  years  after  he  had  become 
blind.  It  was  called  "Amenities  of  Literature."  Nine 
years  after  the  appearance  of  that  book,  he  died,  at  the 
age  of  83.  Isaac  DTsraeli's  Curiosities  and  Amenities  of 
Literature,  Calamities  and  Quarrels  of  Authors,  are  odds 
and  ends  of  the  reading  of  a  man  who  looked  out  actively 
for  interesting  bits  of  life  and  character,  and  took  pleas- 
ure in  carrying  his  reading  along  byways  of  literary  life. 
He  persuaded  himself,  in  a  mild  way,  that  he  was  gath- 
ering materials  for  a  History  of  English  Literature,  and 
he  mined  diligently  for  hidden  treasures.  But  his  heaps 
are  unsifted,  and  the  higher  qualities  of  mind  were  little 
used  in  bringing  them  together.  Isaac  DTsraeli  had  a 
love  for  books  beyond  that  of  a  trifler.  There  is  human 
interest  in  each  of  his  scraps,  and  suggestiveness  in  his 
manner  of  grouping  them.  The  books  must  always  be 
entertaining;  and  they  may  be  occasionally  useful  to  a 
student  who  will  take  the  trouble,  by  his  own  reading, 
to  correct  or  verify,  and  by  his  own  thinking  to  get  the 
light  required  for  a  right  seeing  of  any  supposed  fact.  In 
Isaac  DTsraeli's  account  of  Gabriel  Harvey,  for  example, 
there  is  not  a  sentence  without  at  least  one  error  in  it, 
expressed  or  implied ;  3*et  all  is  honestly  based  on  read- 


106  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ing.  The  errors  come  of  reading  without  balancing  au- 
thorities, or  testing  statements  by  known  facts,  or  weighing 
evidence  in  any  way.  The  lights  and  shades  of  truth  are 
hard  to  get,  and  when  got  they  take  sharpness  of  effect, 
or  what  the  ignorant  call  clearness,  from  a  story.  Many 
a  man  may  be  said  to  take  great  pains  to  spoil  his  work 
for  all  readers  except  the  thoughtful.  Isaac  D'Israeli's 
fault  is  really,  perhaps,  inseparable  from  the  kind  of  book 
on  which  his  credit  rests,  and  his  are  by  far  the  best  books 
of  their  kind.  If  the  strictest  of  English  scholars  were 
so  much  of  a  magician  that  he  could  cause  at  will  what 
books  he  pleased  to  be  forgotten,  he  would  never  deprive 
himself  and  others  of  these  pleasant  stores  of  literary 
small  talk. 

Still  following  along  the  course  of  life  the  course  of 
time,  we  turn  now  to  those  writers  who  at  the  accession 
of  Victoria  were  between  sixty  and  seventy  years  old; 
some  of  them  still  capable  of  ripe  and  energetic  work,  all 
working  still  in  cordial  fellowship  with  younger  men 
whose  turn  it  was  to  be  chief  builders  for  the  future. 
Among  those  who  had  been  most  active  in  the  preceding 
generation  was  the  great  master  builder,  William  Words- 
worth, whose  age  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  was  sixty- 
seven.  Southey  was  sixty-three,  and  Walter  Savage 
Landor  sixty-two.  Then  there  were  the  men  who  had 
given  new  life  and  new  means  of  continued  life  to  the 
free  conflict  of  opinion,  by  helping  to  found  the  Edin- 
burgh Review  and  Blackwood's  Magazine:  Francis  Jeffrey 
who  in  1837  was  sixty-four  years  old,  Sydney  Smith 
who  was  sixty -eight,  —  their  younger  comrade  Brougham 
was  fifty-eight  —  and  John  Wilson,  who  was  sixty-two. 
Thomas  Campbell,  who  had  sung  "the  Pleasures  of  Hope" 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  107 

at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  sixty,  and 
James  Montgomery  was  sixty-six. 

William  Wordsworth,  son  of  John  Wordsworth,  an 
attorney  who  was  law  agent  to  Sir  James  Lowther,  after- 
wards Earl  of  Lonsdale,  was  born  on  the  7th  of  April 
1770.  His  father  had  married  Anne  Cookson,  daughter 
of  a  draper  at  Penrith.  There  were  five  children  by  the 
marriage,  four  boys  and  a  girl.  Richard  the  eldest,  who 
became  a  lawyer,  then  William  and  Dorothy,  Christopher 
and  John.  —  Christopher,  who  was  trained  for  the  Church, 
became  Fellow,  and  afterwards  Master,  of  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Cambridge.  He  was  Master  of  Trinity  in  1837,  but 
resigned  in  1840  and  died  in  1846.  He  edited  a  collection 
of  Ecclesiastical  Biography,  and  argued  for  King  Charles's 
authorship  of  "Eikon  Basilike."  One  of  his  sons,  also 
named  Christopher,  and  also  a  writer  of  books,  is  the 
present  Bishop  of  Lincoln  (1881).  Among  his  writings 
is  a  book  on  "  Greece,  Pictorial,  Descriptive  and  Histori- 
cal," published  in  1840,  with  books  of  Biblical  criticism, 
and  on  the  state  of  Education  and  Religion  in  France  and 
Italy. —  William,  Dorothy  and  John  were  the  three  chil- 
dren of  the  family  who  were  especially  bound  one  to 
another,  for  there  was  in  each  of  them  the  poetic  tempera- 
ment. When  William  was  eight  years  old  he  lost  his 
mother.  He  and  his  brother  Christopher  were  sent  soon 
afterwards  to  school  at  Hawkshead,  a  picturesque  village 
between  Esthwaite  and  Coniston  lakes,  where  there  is  one 
of  the  grammar  schools  that  were  founded  in  the  time  of 
Queen  Elizabeth.  The  boys  lodged  with  Dames  in  the 
cottages  round  about,  and  in  the  cottage  of  Anne  Tyson 
William  Wordsworth  had  a  happy  home  with  freedom  to 
ramble  at  will  over  the  hills.    He  was  at  school  at  Hawks- 


108  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

head,  a  boy  of  fourteen,  when  he  heard  of  his  father's 
death.  Sir  James  Lowther,  to  whose  estates  John  Words- 
worth had  been  agent,  had  borrowed  nearly  all  the  money 
that  his  agent  had,  five  thousand  pounds,  and  refused  to 
repay  it.  What  remained  was  lost  in  the  endeavour  to 
recover  what  was  gone.  When  Sir  James  died,  as  Lord 
Lonsdale,  in  1802,  his  successor  made  amends  to  the 
utmost  of  his  power.  He  paid  to  the  family  the  principal 
due,  with  ample  interest,  and  he  remained  a  cordial  friend. 
To  him  Wordsworth  dedicated  his  "Excursion,"  and  it 
was  he  who,  by  obtaining  for  him  a  small  salaried  office 
in  Westmoreland,  enabled  the  poet  in  his  later  years  to 
unite  "  plain  living  and  high  thinking  "  free  from  anxiety 
lest  bread  should  fail.  But  until  1801  the  young  Words- 
worths  were  an  orphan  family,  dependent  on  two  uncles 
for  their  maintenance.  Their  uncles  proposed  to  edu- 
cate both  William  and  Christopher  for  the  Church,  and 
William  was  sent  from  Hawkshead  school,  in  October 
1787,  to  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge.  He  loved  the 
poets ;  his  own  skill  in  verse  had  been  encouraged  by  the 
head  master  at  Hawkshead,  the  Rev.  William  Taylor,  who 
died  not  long  before  Wordsworth  left  the  school,  Words- 
worth being  among  the  few  elder  boys  of  whom,  from  his 
death  bed,  he  took  leave.  More  than  the  poets,  Words- 
worth loved  that  out  of  which  all  poetry  springs,  Man's 
world  within  him  and  without  him,  his  to  unite,  to  con- 
quer and  possess.  At  the  close  of  his  second  session  in 
Cambridge  Europe  felt  the  fall  of  the  Bastille.  He  went 
to  College  at  a  time  when  the  reaction  against  formalism, 
the  desire  towards  a  truer  life  for  men,  stirred  even  the 
old  and  was  growing  to  a  passion  among  those  of  the 
young  who  had  generous  hearts  and  quick  imaginations. 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  109 

Wordsworth  tells,  in  the  poem  published  after  his  death 
as  "The  Prelude,"  what  ideal  of  a  University  he  took  to 
Cambridge,  and  how  he  felt  himself  repelled  by  the  empti- 
ness of  what  he  found.  Colleges  and  schools  had  not/ 
escaped  the  deadening  influences  of  the  preceding  time, 
and  the  resentment  of  a  young  enthusiast  is  in  Words- 
worth's picture  of  what  Cambridge  seemed  to  him. 

All  degrees 
And  shapes  of  spurious  fame  and  short-lived  praise 
Here  sate  in  state,  and  fed  with  daily  alms 
Retainers  won  away  from  solid  good : 
And  here  was  Labour,  his  own  bondslave ;  Hope, 
That  never  set  the  pains  against  the  prize ; 
Idleness  halting  with  his  weary  clog, 
And  poor  misguided  Shame,  and  witless  Fear, 
And  simple  Pleasure  foraging  for  Death ; 
Honour  misplaced,  and  Dignity  astray ; 
Feuds,  factions,  flatteries,  enmity,  and  guile 
Murmuring  submission,  and  bald  government, 
(The  idol  weak  as  the  idolator) 
And  Decency  and  Custom,  starving  Truth, 
And  blind  Authority  beating  with  his  staff 
The  child  that  might  have  led  him. 


\-v 


Wordsworth,  well  trained  at  Hawkshead,  could  meet 
without  labour  all  that  Cambridge  required  of  him,  if  he 
had  no  desire  for  University  distinction.  He  read  the 
poets,  thought  his  own  thoughts,  spent  the  first  vacation 
at  Hawkshead  in  the  cottage  of  his  old  dame  Tyson,  and 
the  second  with  his  relations  at  Penrith.  During  that 
vacation,  news  of  the  great  movement  in  France  poured 
in  on  him.  Throughout  his  next  year  at  College  his  mind 
was  stirred  by  the  new  hopes  for  man.  When  the  third 
session  was  closing,  and  his  uncles  wished  him  to  read  for 


110  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

honours,  he  "was  more  disposed  like  Brutus  to  "think  of 
the  world,''  and  obtained  leave  to  set  out  with  a  young 
College  friend,  Robert  Jones,  afterwards  a  Welsh  clergy- 
man, for  a  walk  through  France  to  the  Alps.  With  his 
deep  enjoyment  of  external  nature,  the  Alps  would  at  any 
time  have  drawn  Wordsworth  across  France.  But  a  higher 
pleasure  than  the  Alps  could  give,  he  looked  for  and  found 
on  his  way  to  them.     There  was 

France  standing  on  the  top  of  golden  hours, 
And  human  nature  seeming  born  again. 

There  he  said  that  he  saw 

How  bright  a  face  is  worn  when  joy  of  one 
Is  joy  for  tens  of  millions. 

He  came  home,  took  in  January  1791  his  B.A.  degree, 
and  shrank  from  entering  the  Church.  But  he  was  money- 
less, dependent  on  his  uncles,  and  must  earn.  His  bent 
was  towards  Literature,  but  with  law  in  the  background 
he  spent  time  in  London  ;  then,  since  hope  still  beat  high 
for  the  regeneration  of  the  world,  and  his  mind  was 
already  in  France,  he  discovered  the  importance  of  acquir- 
ing a  good  knowledge  of  French,  and  obtained  leave  to 
spend  a  little  time  in  learning  French  among  the  French. 
In  Paris  he  found  too  many  English,  and  went  honestly 
to  live  at  Blois  and  Orleans.  In  October  1792  he  returned 
to  Paris,  a  month  after  the  September  massacres.  While 
he  recoiled  from  the  cruelty  and  outrage  that  had  stained 
the  cause  of  the  Revolutionists,  he  told  himself  that  all 
these  evils  came  of  ignorance  and  brutality  among  men 
whose  minds  had  been   starved   through   generations   of 


IN   THE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  Ill 

oppression.  If  the  thinkers  could  prevail ;  if  earnest  men 
who  knew  the  way  to  the  right  haven  could  make  their 
voices  heard  among  those  untaught  mariners  who  only- 
added  to  the  tumult  of  the  storm,  they  might  escape 
wreck  yet.  Little  as  he  could  do,  he  could  speak  French 
and  write  it ;  he  did  care  with  all  his  soul  for  the  great 
hope  that,  in  many  a  pure  and  fervent  mind,  had  been 
associated  with  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution.  He  would 
give  all  that  he  had  to  give  in  aid  of  the  endeavour  to 
secure  the  triumph  of  high  thought  and  generous  emotion 
over  ignorance  and  passion.  He  would  take  part  in  the 
work  of  the  Girondists.  His  uncles  saw  his  danger,  and 
by  stopping  his  allowance  obliged  him  to  come  home  at 
the  end  of  1792.  As  he  wrote  to  Coleridge  in  "  The  Prel- 
ude," if  he  had  not  been  compelled  to  return  home, 

Doubtless  I  should  then  have  made  common  cause 
With  some  who  perished  ;  haply  perished  too ; 
A  poor  mistaken  and  bewildered  offering,  — 
Should  to  the  breast  of  Nature  have  gone  back, 
With  all  my  resolutions,  all  my  hopes. 

Wordsworth,  in  England  again,  was  still  full  of  the  enthu- 
siasm of  the  time,  with  an  instinct  strong  as  Milton's  had 
been  to  the  poet's  calling,  and  no  definite  profession  con- 
ceived for  him  by  others  but  the  Church  or  Law.  He 
tried  Literature  by  publishing  after  his  return  his  poem 
called  "  An  Evening  Walk,  Addressed  to  a  young  Lady," 
his  sister  Dorothy.  He  published  also  a  poem  with  a 
mild  title,  "Descriptive  Sketches  taken  during  a  Pedes- 
trian Tour  among  the  Alps."  The  title  is  mild,  and  the 
rhymed  couplets  are  not  as  good  as  those  of  Goldsmith's 
"Traveller;"  but  the  young  blood  courses  through  many 


112  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

of  Wordsworth's  lines,  for  his  theme  is  the  walk  across 
France  with  his  friend  Jones,  and  the  hopes  of  the  time 
are  in  it.  To  his  faithful  uncles,  who  were  doing  their 
full  duty  by  a  dead  brother's  and  sister's  children,  William 
Wordsworth  himself  must  have  then  presented  a  some- 
what hopeless  problem. 

There  came  at  last  an  unlooked-for  solution.     Among 
Wordsworth's  friends  at  Penrith  was  a  young  man,  Raisley 
Calvert,  like  himself  in  social  position,  for  his  father  had 
been  steward  to  estates  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk.    At  Christ- 
mas 1794  he  was  dying  of   consumption,  and  his  friend 
Wordsworth  nursed  him.     Calvert  had  a  little  money  to 
leave,  he  knew  his  friend's  aspirations  and  the  bonds  of 
fortune  by  which  they  were  restrained,  he  knew  also  of  a 
resolute  will  that  justified  faith  in  his  future.      Raisley 
Calvert  left  to  his  friend  nine  hundred  pounds,  and  Words- 
worth resolved  by  strictest  thrift  to  secure  independence 
henceforth,  not  for  himself   only  but   also  for  his   sister 
Dorothy.    She  had  never  known,  since  their  father's  death, 
a  settled  home,  but  had  been  taken  care  of  generally  by 
relations  among  whom  she  visited.     Wordsworth  resolved 
now  to  be  poet,  and  as  far  as  was  in  his  power  a  true 
poet ;  finding  his  own  way  to  the  highest  utterance  within 
his  reach,  not  bending  before  any  gale  of  fashion,  but  with 
a  resolve,  like  Milton's,  to  do  all  as  in  his  great  Taskmas- 
ter's eye.     Through  the  good  offices  of  a  friend  at  Bristol 
he  was  led  to  become  tenant  of  a  very  quiet  house  called 
Racedown,  which  lies  below  the  road  as  it  winds  round 
the  lower  slope  of  Pilsdon  Hill,  half  way  between  Lyme 
Regis  and  Crewkerne.    To  this  home  he  brought  his  sister 
Dorothy,  he  five  and  twenty,  she  four  and  twenty,  glory- 
ing in  the  first  sense  of  being  mistress  of  a  real  home  of 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  113 

her  own.  There  was  no  place  large  enough  to  contain 
shops  within  six  miles  in  any  direction,  and  the  post  came 
in  only  once  a  week.  The  scenery  about  the  house  was 
peaceful,  and  there  was  fine  walking  on  the  hills  in  the 
direction  of  the  sea.  Of  Raisley  Calvert's  legacy,  Words- 
worth wrote  afterwards  to  his  friend  Sir  George  Beau- 
mont, "Upon  the  interest  of  the  £900 —  £400  being  laid 
out  in  annuity,  with  £200  deducted  from  the  principal, 
and  £100  a  legacy  to  my  sister,  and  £100  more  which 
the  '  Lyrical  Ballads '  have  brought  me,  my  sister  and  I 
continued  to  live  seven  years,  nearly  eight." 

Among  the  few  readers  of  the  little  pamphlet  of  verse 
in  which  Wordsworth  described  his  walk  across  France 
to  the  Alps,  had  been  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge.  It  had 
come  to  him  at  the  time  when  he  had  left  Cambridge, 
made  Southey's  acquaintance,  and  was  deep  in  the  project 
for  a  Pantisocracy.  He  had  found  in  Wordsworth's  verse 
something  that  answered  to  his  own  enthusiasm  for  new 
hopes  that  France  had  quickened.  The  scheme  for  a  Pan- 
tisocracy had  only  brought  him  a  wife.  He  had  lectured 
on  Charles  the  First  and  on  the  French  Revolution ;  had 
preached ;  had  inspired  in  rich  warm-hearted  men  a  sense 
of  his  rare  genius ;  had  obtained  a  small  pension  from 
the  Wedgwoods  of  Etruria,  that  he  might  have  leisure 
for  intellectual  work,  and  had  settled  at  Nether  Stowey 
near  the  Bristol  Channel,  partly  because  another  of  his 
liberal  friends  and  helpers,  Mr.  Poole,  lived  there  and  was 
the  good  genius  of  the  place.  When  Coleridge  at  Nether 
Stowey  learned  that  William  Wordsworth,  the  author  of 
the  "  Descriptive  Sketches "  in  which  he  had  found  an 
ardour  akin  to  his  own,  was  living  a  few  miles  from  Crew- 
kerne,  he  walked  over  to  see  him.     The  sudden  dropping 


114  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

in  upon  them  of  an  enthusiastic  poet,  who  was  even  a 
little  younger  than  themselves,  was  a  great  event  to  Wil- 
liam and  Dorothy.  The  three  became  firm  friends ;  and 
the  result  of  the  friendship  was  that  William  and  Dorothy 
left  Racedown  to  live  within  reach  of  Coleridge's  daily 
companionship.  In  July  1797,  therefore,  Wordsworth  and 
his  sister  settled  within  two  or  three  miles  of  Nether 
Stowey  at  Alfoxden,  where  Wordsworth  had  also  a  son 
of  Mr.  Basil  Montagu  living  with  him  as  pupil.  Not 
long  afterwards,  in  the  autumn  of  that  year,  Wordsworth 
and  his  sister  planned  a  walk  with  Coleridge  to  Linton, 
and  thought  to  pay  the  small  expense  of  the  holiday  by 
writing  a  poem  that  might  bring  them  five  pounds  from 
"the  New  Monthly  Magazine."  A  friend,  Mr.  Cruik- 
shank,  had  been  dreaming  about  a  Phantom  Ship.  Cole- 
ridge suggested  the  dream  as  a  groundwork  of  the  poem. 
Wordsworth,  who  had  been  reading  in  Shelvocke's  voy- 
ages the  sailors'  superstitions  about  albatrosses,  suggested 
shooting  an  albatross  as  the  crime  that  was  to  bring  trouble 
on  the  Ancient  Mariner,  and  it  was  he  also  who  suggested 
the  navigation  of  the  ship  by  the  dead  men.  The  poem 
was  written  by  Coleridge,  Wordsworth  only  furnishing  a 
few  lines.  When  written,  "the  Rime  of  the  Ancient 
Mariner "  seemed  too  important  to  be  given  to  a  maga- 
zine. It  caused  the  planning  of  a  book,  the  "Lyrical 
Ballads,"  in  which  Coleridge  was  to  deal  chiefly  with  the 
supernatural  world  and  Wordsworth  with  the  natural. 
Each  was  to  take  the  direct  way  to  the  realising  of  poetic 
thought,  by  avoidance  of  conventional  phrases  and  the 
use  of  words  chosen  from  the  language  of  real  life.  Cole- 
ridge's friend,  Joseph  Cottle  at  Bristol,  was  bold  enough 
to  publish  the  book  and  pay  the  authors.     When  he  sold 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  115 

his  stock  and  copyrights,  not  long  afterwards,  the  tender 
made  for  "Lyrical  Ballads"  was  £0  0s  Qd.  Cottle 
thoughtfully,  therefore,  took  the  opportunity  of  passing 
back  the  despised  copyright  to  the  authors.  With  £30 
paid  by  Cottle  for  Wordsworth's  share  of  the  Lyrical 
Ballads,  William  and  Dorothy  went  abroad  and  spent 
the  winter  1798-9  at  Goslar  near  the  Hartz  Mountains. 
With  the  first  breath  of  spring,  after  an  unusually  cold 
winter,  Wordsworth  felt  the  last  ties  of  the  old  days, 
"Not  mine,  and  such  as  were  not  made  for  me,"  to  fall 
away  from  him.  His  mind  stirred  by  an  active  sense  of 
freedom  with  its  "trances  of  thought  and  mountings  of 
the  mind,"  looked  boldly  to  a  life  before  him,  all  his  own, 
a  poet's  life, 

Days  of  sweet  leisure,  taxed  with  patient  thought 
Abstruse,  nor  wanting  punctual  service  high, 
Matins  and  vespers  of  harmonious  verse. 

Free  to  move  as  they  pleased,  the  brother  and  sister, 
when  they  came  back  to  England,  went  to  Stockton  upon 
Tees,  for  there  lived  an  old  companion  at  the  Dame  School 
in  Penrith,  Mary  Hutchinson.  From  Stockton  a  walk  was 
taken  with  Coleridge  in  the  Lake  Country.  As  the  year 
drew  to  a  close,  and  it  became  necessary  to  set  up  another 
independent  home,  Wordsworth  remembered  a  little  cot- 
tage just  outside  the  village  of  Grasmere,  upon  the  border 
of  the  Lake,  which  had  been  to  let.  He  walked  over  to 
see  whether  it  was  still  to  be  had,  found  that  it  was,  and 
took  it  from  the  next  following  Christmas,  1799.  So  it  was 
that  Wordsworth  and  his  sister  began  their  life  at  Grasmere 
in  the  beginning  of  this  century.  There  Wordsworth, 
thirty  years  ago,  began  by  producing,  with  additions,  a 


116  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

new  edition  in  two  volumes  of  the  "  Lyrical  Ballads,"  and 
occupied  leisure  hours  in  poetic  meditation  on  the  past 
course  of  his  life  that  made  him  what  he  was,  and  to  what 
end  he  worked.  In  this  long  poem,  addressed  to  Cole- 
ridge, and  published  by  his  widow  after  his  death  as  "  the 
Prelude,"  Wordsworth  was  feeling  his  way  to  a  clear 
knowledge  of  his  place  among  the  poets.  He  married 
Mary  Hutchinson  in  1802,  the  year  in  which  Lord  Lons- 
dale died  childless,  and  his  heir,  who  was  a  clergyman's 
son,  paid  the  debt  to  the  Wordsworths,  thus  giving  about 
£1800  each,  to  William  and  his  sister  Dorothy.  Influence 
of  his  sister  and  of  his  wife,  in  the  peace  of  Grasmere  valr 
ley,  brought  calm  to  his  spirit.  While  others,  who  had 
felt  as  he  felt  in  1789,  lost  all  hope  when  the  Revolution 
failed,  the  close  of  Wordsworth's  "Prelude,"  written  in 
1805  and  the  beginning  of  1806,  shows  that  he  had  gained 
a  surer  though  a  calmer  hope. 

Throughout  the  war  with  Napoleon,  Wordsworth  illus- 
trated in  a  noble  series  of  poems,  grouped  in  his  Works 
as  "Poems  dedicated  to  National  Liberty  and  Independ- 
ence," the  best  mind  of  England  combating  against 
tyrannic  force.  In  June  1803  his  eldest  child,  his  son 
John,  was  born.  In  the  same  year  began  his  friendship 
with  Sir  George  Beaumont,  that  lasted  until  Beaumont's 
death  in  1827.  In  August  1801  his  daughter  Dorothy  — 
Dora  —  was  born.  The  son  John  had  been  named  after 
Wordsworth's  brother  John  who,  at  the  close  of  1804, 
was  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  Abergavenny  East 
Indiaman.  The  ship  sailed  with  402  passengers  on  board, 
and  on  the  5th  of  February  1805,  through  fault  of  the 
pilot,  struck  on  the  shambles  of  the  Bill  of  Portland.  Of 
all  who  were  on  board  only  139  were  saved.     The  captain 


IN   TUE  IlEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  117 

staid  by  his  duty  on  the  wreck,  and  went  down  with  it. 
It  was  to  have  been  John  Wordsworth's  last  voyage,  from 
which  he  had  hoped  to  retire  with  means  enough  to  spend 
the  rest  of  his  days  at  Grasmere  with  William  and  Dorothy, 
who  had  contributed  XI 200  out  of  their  shares  in  the  little 
patrimony  to  advance  their  brother's  fortunes.  In  June 
1806  Wordsworth's  third  child,  Thomas,  was  born,  and  in 
September  1808  his  fourth  child  Catherine.  The  family 
could  no  longer  be  housed  in  the  cottage  at  Townend, 
and  there  was  removal  to  another  house  in  Grasmere, 
called  Allan  Bank.  In  May  1810  William,  the  fifth  child, 
was  born.  Thomas  and  Catherine  failed  in  health.  In 
1811  the  family  removed  from  Allan  Bank  to  the  Old 
Grasmere  Rectory,  opposite  the  churchyard.  Catherine 
was  laid  in  the  churchyard  in  June  1812.  In  the  autumn 
little  Thomas  swept  the  falling  leaves  from  his  sister's 
grave,  but  he  was  laid  by  her  side  in  the  following  Decem- 
ber. Change  of  home  was  then  absolutely  necessary. 
Peace  of  mind  was  unattainable  by  Wordsworth  and  his 
wife  within  daily  sight  of  the  churchyard  in  which  were 
the  graves  of  their  two  little  ones.  For  this  reason  a 
house  was  sought  at  Rydal,  about  two  miles  distant,  and 
in  the  spring  of  1813  the  family  removed  to  Rydal  Mount, 
which  was  thenceforth  Wordsworth's  permanent  home. 
About  the  same  time  the  second  Lord  Lonsdale,  who  in 
every  way  made  generous  amends  for  the  wrong  done  by 
his  predecessor  to  the  Wordsworths,  placed  the  poet  above 
narrow  care  for  bread  by  obtaining  for  him  the  post  of 
distributor  of  stamps  for  Westmoreland,  and  afterwards 
for  Cumberland  also.  The  assured  income  of  <£500  a  year 
gave  Wordsworth  ease,  and  enabled  him  to  produce  in 
1814  his  "  Excursion."     This  was  one  part  only  of  a  poem 


118  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

designed  on  a  larger  scale,  but  it  was  in  itself  a  complete 
expression  of  what  would  have  been  the  purpose  of  the 
whole.  Through  "  the  Excursion "  Wordsworth  dealt 
with  the  problem  of  our  common  life  as  it  stood  after 
the  failure  of  those  who  had  aimed  at  a  reconstruction  of 
society  by  Revolution.  Wordsworth  still  maintained  the 
loftiest  ideal  of  a  humanized  society.  He  used  poetically 
the  characters  drawn  in  "  the  Excursion  "  as  so  many  fac- 
tors in  working  out  his  own  solution  of  the  problem.  The 
Wanderer  represents  shrewd  natural  sense,  strengthened 
in  youth  by  homely  and  religious  education  and  in  man- 
hood by  wide  intercourse  with  men.  The  Solitary  repre- 
sents one  in  whom  faith  seems  dead,  enthusiasm  for  the 
best  aims  of  the  Revolution  being  quelled  by  the  apparent 
failure  of  the  effort.  Talk  between  Wanderer  and  Soli- 
tary, and  all  the  associated  incidents,  maintain  one  flow  of 
thought,  until  the  Pastor,  representing  culture  and  religion 
in  acquaintance  with  the  daily  lives  of  men,  adds  his  part 
to  the  argument.  The  full  course  of  reasoning  leads  to 
expression  of  the  faith  which  is  at  the  heart  of  Words- 
worth's poetry.  It  there  first  found  distinct  expression. 
It  is  now  the  faith  of  all  who  look  for  a  full  civilization. 
The  question  of  "  the  Prelude,"  "  What  one  is,  why  may 
not  millions  be  ?  "  is  answered  in  "  the  Excursion."  The 
way  to  realize  the  far  ideal  is  not  by  violent  change  in  the 
outward  form  of  a  state,  but  by  change  in  the  minds  of  its 
citizens.  The  first  condition  of  success  in  this  citizen- 
building  is  that  no  child's  mind  shall  be  left  untaught; 
and  in  the  year  before  Waterloo  Wordsworth  in  "  the 
Excursion  "  was  claiming  for  every  child  its  sacred  right, 
and  urging  on  the  State  its  duty.  Now,  he  said,  when 
destruction  is  a  prime  pursuit, 


Ca\. 


\_os  ^SeleS 
IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  119 

"  Show  to  the  wretched  nations  for  what  end 
The  powers  of  civil  polity  were  given." 

The  first  edition  of  500  copies  of  "  the  Excursion " 
lasted  the  English  public  for  six  years.  The  next  edition 
of  500  it  took  seven  years  to  sell.  Southey  heard  of  a 
critic  who  thought  he  had  crushed  "  the  Excursion."  "  He 
crush  '  the  Excursion  !  '  "  Southey  said.  "  Tell  him  he 
might  as  well  think  he  could  crush  Skiddaw." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Victoria,  Wordsworth 
had  long  since  delivered  his  message.  He  published  in 
1837  "  Memorials  of  a  Tour  in  Italy,"  and  with  them 
a  poem,  "  Guilt  and  Sorrow,"  written  in  1791.  In  1888 
he  was  made  LL.D.  of  Durham,  in  1839  D.C.L.  of  Oxford. 
Southey  died  on  the  21st  of  March  1843,  and  Wordsworth 
was  then  made  Poet  Laureate.  In  1841  his  daughter 
Dora  married  Edward  Quillinan,  an  old  friend  of  the 
family.  In  1846  Wordsworth  was  elected  by  the  students 
Rector  of  the  University  of  Glasgow.  His  only  surviving 
brother,  Christopher,  died  in  that  year.  In  1847  Dora 
died,  and  Wordsworth  wrote  "  Our  Sorrow  I  feel  is  for 
life,  but  God's  will  be  done."  In  1850,  on  the  10th  of 
March  he  attended  service  at  Rydal  Chapel  for  the  last 
time.  In  the  evening  he  walked  to  Grasmere  through  a 
keen  north-east  wind,  called  at  a  cottage  and  sat  down  on 
the  stone  seat  of  the  porch  to  watch  the  setting  sun.  He 
was  eighty  years  old,  and  lightly  clad.  There  followed, 
after  a  few  days,  a  fatal  inflammation  of  the  throat  and 
chest.  When  hope  of  recovery  was  gone,  his  wife  whis- 
pered to  him  "  William,  you  are  going  to  Dora."  He  died 
on  the  23d  of  April  1850,  and  was  buried  beside  his  chil- 
dren in  the  churchyard  at  Grasmere. 


120  OF  ENGLISn  LITERATURE 

Robert  Southey,  born  on  the  12th  of  August  1774,  was 
the  son  of  a  linendraper  in  Bristol.  His  father  was  noted 
for  his  punctual  habits,  a  characteristic  that  his  son  inher- 
ited, but  although  punctuality  is  said  to  be  the  soul  of 
business,  Southey's  father  was  unprosperous.  Southey 
himself  owed  the  chief  care  over  his  childhood  and  youth 
to  a  maiden  aunt,  Miss  Tyler,  an  elder  half  sister  of  his 
mother's,  and  to  his  mother's  brother  the  Rev.  Herbert 
Hill,  chaplain  to  the  British  factory  at  Lisbon.  He  was 
sent  to  Westminster  School.  In  his  last  year  at  West- 
minster, in  1792,  Southey  contributed  to  a  school  magazine 
called  "  the  Flagellant "  a  playful  article  on  Flogging, 
tracing  the  practice  in  schools  as  a  sacred  rite  associated 
with  the  worship  of  the  Devil,  and  glancing  at  head  mas- 
ters as  high  priests  by  whom  its  mysteries  were  maintained 
and  transmitted.  Dr.  Vincent,  the  head  master  at  West- 
minster, resented  the  article,  and  Southey  was  expelled. 
We  have  to  remember  the  emotions  of  the  time,  the  revo- 
lutionary outburst  in  the  greater  world  :  the  sympathies, 
in  school  and  college,  of  large  bodies  of  the  young  with 
all  attacks  on  tyranny;  the  strong  feeling  on  the  other 
side  that  impelled  to  battle  for  authority,  and  the  belief 
that,  then  if  ever,  it  was  necessary  to  assert  authority 
against  the  spirit  of  insubordination  among  those  who 
were  to  be  citizens  of  the  future,  and  upon  whose  alle- 
giance to  law  the  future  of  England  might  depend.  Uncle 
Hill  held  by  his  nephew,  who  was  open,  generous,  alive 
with  eager  intellect ;  and  as  for  any  common  sense  he 
wanted,  that,  his  uncle  said,  would  come.  At  a  time, 
therefore,  when  Southey's  father,  a  broken  man,  was 
dying,  Uncle  Hill  and  Aunt  Tyler  proceeded  to  send  their 
nephew  to  Oxford.     But  the  offended  head   master  had 


IN  THE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  121 

sent  such  an  account  of  him  to  the  authorities  at  Christ 
Church  that  when  he  applied  for  admission  there  he  was 
refused.  He  was  entered  to  Baliol ;  and  at  that  time  of  his 
entrance  into  the  University,  his  father  died.  At  Oxford 
he  was  "  citizen  Southey,"  full  of  wild  poetic  hope  for  the 
regeneration  of  the  world.  At  nineteen  he  began  an  epic 
poem,  "  Joan  of  Arc,"  and  finished  it  in  six  weeks.  One 
ground  of  interest  in  the  theme  was,  that  it  represented 
high  emotion  and  a  patriotic  struggle  of  France  against 
English  invasion.  England  then  had  entered  into  what 
Southey  regarded  as  unholy  war  against  the  Revolution. 
Like  Wordsworth,  Southey  gave  his  sympathy  to  the 
Girondins  who  took  Brissot  for  their  guide.  After  the 
execution  of  Brissot,  in  the  autumn  of  1793,  Southey  felt, 
as  Cowper  had  felt,  sick  at  heart  with  every  day's  report 
of  wrong  and  outrage.  There  seemed  to  him  no  place 
left  in  the  corrupted  world  for  virtue.  In  the  summer  of 
1794  citizen  Southey  at  Oxford  was  visited  by  Coleridge 
from  Cambridge.  The  scheme  of  a  migration  to  the  Sus- 
quehanna was  devised.  Robert's  mysterious  plottings 
gave  Aunt  Tyler  concern.  Uncle  Hill,  who  still  hoped 
that  he  might  guide  his  nephew  to  a  quiet  living  in  the 
English  church,  held  that,  whatever  the  plots,  a  run  to 
Spain  and  Portugal  with  him  when  he  returned  to  his  own 
post  at  Lisbon,  would  distract  the  boy's  attention  from 
them,  and  would  do  him  good.  Southey  was  glad  of  the 
run,  but  he  had  engaged  himself  to  marry  Edith  Flicker. 
To  make  all  sure,  he  married  her  privately  before  starting, 
his  friend  Joseph  Cottle,  a  sympathetic  bookseller  who 
believed  in  Southey's  genius  and  in  the  genius  also  of  his 
friend  Coleridge,  lending  the  money  necessary  for  the 
wedding  ring  and  marriage  fees.     Southey  went  to  Spain, 


122  OF  ENGLISn  LITEBATURE 

wrote  to  Edith  letters  from  Spain  and  Portugal  designed 
for  publication,  and  came  back  with  that  knowledge  of 
Spanish  which  he  increased  and  turned  to  excellent  ac- 
count for  literary  labours  of  his  after  years.  He  had  now 
to  acknowledge  his  wife,  to  bear  the  withdrawal  of  all 
further  care  for  him  by  his  Aunt  Tyler,  and  to  fight  the 
battle  of  life  for  himself.  In  1796  "  Joan  of  Arc  "  was 
published  by  Cottle.  The  "  Letters  from  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal "  were  published  also  in  1797.  There  were  changes 
of  lodging,  and  there  was  constant  increase  in  the  number 
of  Southey's  literary  friends.  There  came  aid  of  £160  a 
year  from  his  old  school  fellow  Charles  Wynn,  according, 
as  they  both  felt,  to  the  fashion  of  the  good  time  that 
would  come  when 

Whate'er  is  wanting  to  yourselves 
In  others  ye  shall  promptly  find,  and  all, 
Enriched  by  mutual  and  reflected  wealth, 
Shall  with  one  heart  honour  their  common  kind. 

In  1799  and  1800  there  were  published  two  little  vol- 
umes of  an  "Annual  Anthology,"  containing  verses  by 
Southey,  Coleridge,  Robert  Lloyd,  Charles  Lamb,  Hum- 
phrey Davy,  then  a  young  man  of  one  and  twenty  at 
Bristol,  and  other  contributors.  Southey  earned  a  guinea 
a  week  by  writing  verses  for  "the  Morning  Post,"  to 
which  also  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge  contributed.  But 
Wordsworth  had  found  his  own  path.  Coleridge  was  not 
of  punctual  habits.  Southey  alone,  looking  upon  such 
work  as  a  source  of  income,  held  to  it  with  his  usual  dili- 
gence. He  finished  "  Madoc,"  worked  at  "  Thalaba,"  and 
was  planning  "  the  Curse  of  Kehama  "  before  "  Thalaba  " 
was  finished.  He  paid  a  visit,  witli  his  wife,  in  1800,  to 
Uncle  Hill  in  Portugal,  who,  always  wise  and  kind,  was 
still  his  friend. 


IN   TUE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  123 

In  1801,  when  Southey  returned,  Coleridge  was  settled 
for  a  time  at  Greta  Hall,  Keswick,  by  Derwentwater, 
where  he  Avas  thirteen  miles  from  Wordsworth  at  Gras- 
mere.  Southey  visited  him  there,  but  being  offered  the 
post  of  private  secretary  to  Montagu  Corry,  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  for  Ireland,  with  a  salary  of  <£400  a  year, 
he  felt  bound  to  accept  it.  Then,  leaving  his  wife  for  a 
time  at  Keswick,  Southey  went  to  Dublin.  He  found  that 
he  had  little  to  do,  that  little  being  tedious.  When  it  was 
suggested  that  he  should  fill  up  his  spare  time  by  acting 
also  as  tutor  to  Mr.  Corry 's  son,  Southey  gave  up  the 
appointment  and  fell  back  upon  the  literary  life  that  was 
for  him  the  happiest.  In  1801  he  published  two  volumes 
of  Poems,  and  also  "  Thalaba."  In  1802  his  mother  came 
to  see  him  in  his  London  lodging,  and  died  there.  He 
moved  to  a  little  furnished  house  at  Bristol  and  worked 
on  his  English  version  of  "  Amadis  of  Gaul,"  which  he 
had  undertaken  to  produce  for  £60.  In  the  autumn  of 
this  year  his  first  child  was  born,  a  daughter,  who  died  in 
a  few  months.  To  comfort  his  wife  with  the  companion- 
ship of  her  sister,  Coleridge's  wife,  Southey  went  with  her 
to  Greta  Hall,  which  thenceforth  became  their  home.  It 
was  first  shared  with  Coleridge ;  but  Coleridge,  suffering 
from  the  damp  of  the  lake  country,  soon  afterwards  wan- 
dered away,  and  the  home  remained  Southey's,  with  charge 
in  it  for  some  time  of  Coleridge's  wife  and  children,  and 
of  his  wife's  other  sister,  Robert  Lovell's  widow.  All  was 
to  be  maintained  by  steady,  cheerful  labour  of  the  pen. 
In  1803  "Amadis  of  Gaul"  appeared,  and  interest  in  the 
boy  poet  of  his  native  Bristol  prompting  a  kind  heart, 
Southey  edited  Chatterton's  poems  for  the  benefit  of  Chat- 
terton's  relations. 


124  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

At  Greta  Hall  there  were  Coleridge's  children.  Hart- 
ley and  Derwent  were  the  two  boys,  and  Sara  was  a  baby 
of  seven  months  when,  after  the  loss  of  his  own  first  child, 
Southey  first  saw  her  at  Keswick.  On  May  Day  in  1804 
Southey  again  had  a  child  of  his  own,  a  daughter,  Edith 
May,  and  Southey  wrote  in  1809,  "  I  have  five  children, 
three  of  them  at  home,  and  two  under  my  mother's  care 
in  heaven."  Sara  Coleridge,  who  was  bred  by  Southey  in 
that  household  of  cheerful  love  and  labour,  spoke  of  him 
as  "  upon  the  whole  the  best  man  she  had  ever  known." 

"Madoc"was  published  in  1805,  and  also  a  collection 
of  "Metrical  Tales."  Southey's  profit  from  "Madoc," 
with  which  poem  he  had  taken  especial  pains,  was,  at  the 
end  of  a  year,  £3.  16s.  Id.  In  1807  he  published  an 
English  version  of  "  Palmerin  of  England,"  also  "  Speci- 
mens of  the  Later  English  Poets,"  also  "  Espriella's  Let- 
ters," which  playfully  represented  English  manners  and 
customs  as  they  were  supposed  to  appear  to  a  visitor  from 
Spain.  In  this  year  1807  his  old  school-friend  Charles 
Wynn  obtained  for  him,  on  account  of  literary  services,  a 
pension  from  the  Civil  List  that  took  the  place  of  his  own 
annual  allowance  of  .£160,  and  was  of  about  that  value. 
Still  working  the  mine  of  Spanish  literature,  out  of  which 
he  had  drawn  some  part  of  the  help  of  his  housekeeping, 
Southey  next  produced  a  version  of  "  the  Chronicle  of  the 
Cid."  Then  followed,  in  1810,  the  "  Curse  of  Kehama  " 
and  a  "  History  of  Brazil."  Away  from  libraries  Southey 
needed  books,  and  he  loved  their  companionship.  Books 
had  multiplied  about  him  from  his  youth  upward,  and  the 
volumes  in  the  library  at  Greta  Hall  grew  in  time,  through 
purchase  and  gift,  from  four  thousand  to  fourteen  thou- 
sand.    Half  a  dozen  labours  were  usually  being  carried 


IN  THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  125 

on  together  at  the  study  table ;  long  hours  of  work  were 
punctually  observed ;  refreshment  was  in  change  of  the 
form  of  work  ;  and  rest  was  everywhere  outside  the  study 
in  the  cheerful  home,  its  wise  peace  and  its  tender  play- 
fulness. "  There  is  no  sense  so  good,"  he  said,  "  as  your 
honest  genuine  nonsense."  Southey  avoided  excitement. 
In  his  mind,  as  in  other  minds,  the  young  faith  in  sudden 
change  had  been  overthrown,  and  while  he  looked  still,  as 
his  "  Colloquies  "  show,  and  passages  in  his  poem  on  the 
field  of  Waterloo,  to  a  nobler  day  for  man,  he  looked  to 
its  slow  attainment  by  advance  of  a  true  sense  of  life  with 
the  advance  of  culture.  Like  Wordsworth  he  laid  chief 
stress  upon  education  of  the  people.  The  changed  tone 
of  his  mind  brought  him  into  accord  with  the  founders  of 
"  the  Quarterly  Review,"  and  after  its  establishment,  in 
1809,  writing  for  "  the  Quarterly "  became  one  form  of 
Southey 's  work.  In  1813  Southey  was  made  Poet  Laure- 
ate, and  in  1811  he  produced  the  best  of  his  longer  tales 
in  verse,  "  Roderick,  the  Last  of  the  Goths."  In  1818, 
behind  his  yearly  income,  Southey  had  for  his  whole  for- 
tune £400  in  consols.  In  1821  that  sum  had  been  in- 
creased, and  he  gave  all  to  a  ruined  friend  who  had  been 
good  to  him  in  former  years.  Yet  he  refused  an  offer  of 
£2000  a  year  if  he  would  come  to  London  and  write 
daily  in  "  the  Times." 

A  son  and  daughter  nad  died  in  the  happy  home  at 
Greta  Hall ;  grief  for  their  loss  was  so  deep  seated  that 
father  and  mother  never  dared  again  to  speak  their  names. 
But  a  deeper  grief  followed  in  1834,  when,  after  forty 
years,  during  which,  as  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Bedford, 
"she  has  been  the  life  of  my  life,"  Southey's  wife  had  to 
be   placed   in  a  lunatic  asylum.      Next  year  she  was  re- 


126  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

turned  to  him  and  for  her  last  daj^s  trusted  to  his  care, 
but  she  lived  only  until  November.  He  worked  as  hard 
as  ever,  and  his  earnings  had  so  far  increased  that  he  was 
now  making  some  provision  for  his  family  in  case  of  death. 
Sir  Robert  Peel  offered  him  a  baronetcy.  That  was 
declined,  but  Sir  Robert  then  added  £300  a  year  to 
Southey's  pension. 

Such  was  the  English  worthy  who  was  poet  laureate  in 
1837,  aged  sixty-three,  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of 
Queen  Victoria.  He  had  been  editing  Cowper's  works, 
and  touching  upon  the  insanity  in  Cowper's  life,  while 
she  whom  he  loved  best,  was  dying  insane  beside  him. 
His  gentleness  of  manner  was  even  increased  by  his  sense 
of  the  shades  that  were  closing  in  upon  his  evening  of  life. 
His  memory  would  fail ;  his  old  animation  was  gone  ;  his 
body  had  wasted;  and  the  eagle  face  had  lost  its  fire. 
Among  his  friends,  for  the  last  twenty  years,  had  been 
Caroline  Bowles,  only  child  of  Captain  Charles  Bowles  of 
Buckland  near  Lymington,  who  had  distinguished  herself 
by  verses  to  which  her  name  was  not  attached,  and  which 
had  excited  Southey's  admiration.  He  had  expressed  his 
admiration  for  her  in  "  the  Quarterly  "  before  he  knew 
her  personally.  At  Midsummer  in  1839  Southey  married 
Miss  Bowles,  his  age  being  then  sixtj^-five,  hers  fifty-two. 
But  the  failure  of  power  was  not  checked.  Signs  of  decay 
became  more  and  more  manifest.  Two  months  after  his 
marriage  he  began  to  lose  himself  at  times  in  conversa- 
tion. Then  the  use  of  the  pen  failed ;  then  the  power  of 
reading.  He  walked  about  among  his  books,  still  loving 
them,  although  they  were  dumb  to  him  now.  Wordsworth 
in  1840  visited  him  in  his  library  at  Greta  Hall.  Southey 
did  not  know  him,  until  told  who  it  was.     "  Then,"  wrote 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  127 

"Wordsworth,  "his  eyes  flashed  for  a  moment  with  their 
former  brightness,  but  he  sank  into  the  state  in  which  I 
had  found  him,  patting  with  both  hands  his  books  affec- 
tionately like  a  child."  He  died  on  the  21st  of  March 
1843. 

Southey's  whole  character  is  in  his  writings.  In  prose 
and  verse  he  maintained  the  reaction  against  formalism 
by  a  simple  purity  of  style,  based  on  the  simple  purity 
of  his  own  character.  The  only  man  of  whom  he  wrote 
severely  was  Byron,  and  that  only  after  Don  Juan  began 
to  appear,  because  he  felt  that  Byron  made  an  ill  use  of 
his  genius,  and  dragged  minds  down  instead  of  raising 
them. 

There  was  health  in  the  ideal  of  his  own  longer  poetical 
romances,  and  although  they  yield  few  lines  that  cast  a 
thought  into  imperishable  form,  "  Thalaba "  and  "  the 
Curse  of  Kehama,"  "  Madoc  "  and  "  Roderick "  are  four 
of  the  best  metrical  tales  in  English  Literature.  In 
"  Thalaba  "  and  "  the  Curse  of  Kehama  "  there  was,  as  in 
Scott's  metrical  romances,  an  escape  from  the  convention 
of  heroic  couplets,  but  Southey's  defiance  of  convention 
was  as  absolute  as  he  could  make  it. 

"  Madoc "  and  "  Roderick "  were  in  blank  verse  of 
simple  dignity.  In  "Roderick,"  which  might  fairly  be 
called  an  epic,  Southey's  more  ambitious  tale-writing  rose 
to  its  best  form.  In  the  less  ambitious  work,  the  metrical 
tales  and  legends  of  his  younger  days,  the  grace  of  a 
playful  good  humour  blends  with  the  spirit  of  romance, 
and  there  never  will  be  a  time  when  they  cease  to  furnish 
a  part  of  the  familiar  literature  of  the  English  People.  In 
the  "Life  of  Nelson,"  published  in  1813,  Southey  gave 
to  a  national  theme  the  charm  of  his  clear  style,  and  in 


128  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"the  Doctor,"  of  which  the  first  volume  was  published 
anonymously  in  1833,  and  the  last  some  years  after  his 
death,  the  whole  pleasantness  of  Southey's  character  with 
his  best  sense  of  life  breathes  through  his  love  of  books. 

In  the  last  days  of  his  mental  darkness,  Southey  was 
heard  breathing  to  himself  with  satisfaction  the  name  of 
his  friend  Landor  —  "  Ay,  Landor,  Landor  ..."  He  had 
met  Landor  first  at  Bristol  in  1808,  and  spoke  of  him  as 
"  the  only  man  of  whose  praise  I  was  ambitious,  or  whose 
censure  would  have  humbled  me."  Walter  Savage  Lan- 
dor, who  was  about  six  months  younger  than  Southey, 
lived  on  through  a  vigorous  old  age  to  the  year  1864. 
He  was  the  son  of  a  physician  at  Warwick,  and  was  born 
on  the  30th  of  January  1775.  His  second  name  of  Sav- 
age was  that  of  his  mother's  family.  His  mother  owned 
the  two  estates  in  Warwickshire  of  Ipsley  Court  and 
Tachbrook,  with  a  share  of  a  reversionary  interest  in 
Hughenden  Manor,  in  Buckinghamshire.  To  this  prop- 
erty, worth  £80,000  and  strictly  entailed  upon  her  eldest 
son,  Landor  was  heir.  At  ten  he  was  sent  to  Rugby,  vig- 
orous, impulsive,  impatient,  with  a  quick  intellect  that 
fastened  upon  nature  and  upon  those  books  of  the  poets 
which  are  the  best  part  of  nature.  He  soon  became  one 
of  the  best  Latin  scholars  in  Rugby  and  probably  the 
best  writer  of  Latin  verse.  It  irritated  him  that  the  head 
master  seemed  to  underrate  his  work ;  and  when  Landor 
was  irritated  the  fire  flashed,  it  never  smouldered.  A 
violent  quarrel  with  the  head  master  over  a  Latin  quan- 
tity led  to  a  request  that  his  father  would  remove  Landor 
from  Rugby,  since  he  would  not  bend  his  temper  to  school 
discipline.  His  sympathy  with  the  French  Revolution 
brought  him  into   conflict  of  opinion  at  home ;   but  his 


IN  TIIE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  129 

sympathy  was  that  of  a  mind  with  extreme  bias  towards 
individual  freedom.  He  was  a  natural  republican,  and 
could  not  bow  to  the  despotic  monarchy  of  school.  After 
two  years  with  a  private  tutor  Landor  went,  in  1793,  to 
Oxford.  He  was  at  Trinity  when  Southey  was  at  Baliol. 
But  Landor's  college  life  was  brought  to  an  abrupt  end, 
}ike  his  life  at  Rugby.  Being  rusticated,  he  gave  up  his 
chambers  and  refused  to  go  back  to  the  University.  This 
brought  to  a  head  the  disputes  at  home,  and  Landor 
parted  from  his  father.  Allowance  was  made  to  him  of 
.£150  a  year  with  freedom  of  action,  and  welcome  to  his 
father's  house  whenever  he  paid  it  a  visit.  Landor  then 
went  to  South  Wales,  living  at  Swansea,  Tenby,  or  else- 
where, and  sometimes  visiting  home.  In  South  Wales 
there  was  again  close  communion  with  books  and  nature, 
and  with  all  his  keen  relish  for  the  ancient  classics  he 
found  in  Milton  the  masterpoet;  "even  the  great  hex- 
ameter sounded  to  me  tinkling  Avhen  I  had  recited  aloud, 
in  my  solitary  walks  on  the  seashore,  the  haughty  appeal 
of  Satan  and  the  repentance  of  Eve."  Near  Tenby  he 
had  friends  in  the  family  of  Lord  Aylmer.  Rose  Aylmer 
lent  him  a  "  History  of  Romance "  by  Clara  Reeve,  in 
which  he  found  the  sketch  of  a  tale  that  suggested  to  him 
his  poem  of  "  Gebir."  Landor  began  "  Gebir  "  in  Latin, 
but  then  turned  to  English,  and  when  all  was  done  he 
vigorously  condensed  what  he  had  written.  "  Gebir " 
was  published  anonymously  at  Warwick,  as  a  pamphlet, 
in  1798,  the  year  of  the  "  Lyrical  Ballads."  Robert 
Southey  was  among  the  few  who  bought  it,  and  he  first 
made  known  its  power.  In  the  best  sense  of  the  phrase 
"  Gebir "  was  written  in  classical  English,  not  with  a 
search  for  pompous  words  of  Latin  origin  to  give  false 


130  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

dignity  to  style,  but  with  strict  endeavour  to  form  terse 
English  lines  of  apt  words  well  compacted.  Many  pas- 
sages appear  to  have  been  half  thought  out  in  Greek  or 
Latin,  and  Landor  published  a  translation  of  "  Gebir " 
into  Latin  three  or  four  years  after  its  first  appearance. 
The  poem  included  prophetic  visions  in  which  Landor's 
sympathy  with  the  French  Revolution  and  his  contempt 
for  George  III.  were  duly  figured.  At  the  close  of  1805 
Landor's  father  died,  and  the  young  poet  became  a  man 
of  property.     He  lived  chiefly  at  Bath. 

In  1808  Southey  and  Landor  met.  Their  friendship 
remained  unbroken.  No  later  differences  of  political  or 
other  opinion  could  touch  the  delight  of  each  in  the  free 
powers  of  his  friend.  When  Spain  rose  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  of  Napoleon,  Landor's  enthusiasm  carried  him  to 
Corunna,  where  he  paid  for  the  equipment  of  a  thousand 
volunteers  and  joined  with  them  the  Spanish  army  of  the 
North.  After  the  convention  of  Cintra  he  returned  to 
England,  sharing  the  disappointment  that  was  expressed 
by  Wordsworth  in  a  vigorous  prose  pamphlet.  Then  Lan- 
dor desired  a  large  Welsh  estate,  Llanthony  Priory,  and 
paid  for  it  by  not  only  selling  an  estate  in  Staffordshire 
inherited  from  his  father,  but  also  by  divesting  himself  of 
part  of  the  inheritance  that  would  come  to  him  at  his 
mother's  death.  He  began  at  Llanthony  costly  improve- 
ments, but  still  lived  much  at  Bath,  whore  in  1811  he 
married,  in  quick  accordance  with  a  sudden  fancy,  at  the 
age  of  thirty-six  a  girl  of  twenty.  Then  he  began  his 
tragedy  of  "  Count  Julian."  The  patriotic  struggle  in 
Spain  had  caused  Southey,  Scott  and  Landor  all  to  deal 
with  the  romance  of  Count  Julian  who,  to  avenge  wrong 
done  on  his  daughter  by  Roderick,  the  last  of  the  Gothic 


7JV  THE  BEIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  131 

Kings,  called  in  the  Moors.  Southey's  epic  of  "  Roderick, 
the  last  of  the  Goths,"  and  Landor's  play  of  Count  Julian 
had  both  been  begun  in  1810,  and  the  friends  worked  in 
fellowship.  Landor  was  also  writing  Latin  Idyls.  His 
play  of  "Count  Julian"  was  published  in  1812.  His 
"Idyllia"  he  published  at  Oxford  in  1813.  After  five 
years,  his  impetuous  temper  had  surrounded  him  with 
troubles  at  Llanthony,  in  which  place  he  had  sunk  seventy 
thousand  pounds.  In  1814  Llanthony  was  vested  in  trus- 
tees, other  property  was  sold,  and  Landor  left  England, 
parting  abruptly  from  his  wife  because  she  was  unwilling 
to  live  in  France.  But  reconciliation  followed  on  that 
quarrel ;  for  a  time  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Landor  lived  at  Tours, 
and  then  for  three  years  at  Como,  where  a  son  was  born 
to  them.  A  quarrel  with  a  magistrate  obliged  Landor  to 
leave  Como.  He  was  then  chiefly  at  Pisa  from  1819  until 
1821,  and  at  Pisa  he  published  his  Latin  poems  as  "  Idyllia 
Heroica,"  with  an  Essay  De  cultii  atque  usu  Latini  ser- 
monis.  In  1821,  Italy  then  sharing  in  active  expression 
of  the  revived  spirit  of  nationality,  Landor  addressed  to 
the  Italian  people  an  Italian  essay  on  Representative  Gov- 
ernment. After  Pisa,  Florence  was  Landor's  home,  and 
there,  or  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood,  he  lived  for  the 
next  eight  years.  There  he  worked  at  his  "Imaginary 
Conversations,"  of  which  two  volumes  were  published  in 
1824.  The  dialogues,  between  speakers  of  many  lands 
and  many  ages  of  the  world,  were  developed  through  a 
vigorous  prose,  compact  with  thought,  expressing  in  force 
and  grace  and  combative  opinion  an  individuality  that 
was  even  the  fresher  for  carrying  with  it  everywhere,  like 
Milton's  prose,  the  scholarship  and  the  sincerity  that  gave 
precision  to  the  style.     Landor's  sentences,  often  Cicero- 


132  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

nian,  mark  strongly  the  difference  between  strained  rheto- 
ric set  forth  in  Latin  English,  and  vigorous  thought  in 
English  phrase  with  a  style  based  on  scholarly  attention 
to  the  best  prose  of  the  Latins.  The  whole  mind  of  Lan- 
dor  found  expression  in  these  dialogues,  which  closed  with 
a  poem  on  the  national  uprisings  in  Greece  and  Italy.  In 
1826  a  second  edition  appeared,  with  an  added  third  vol- 
ume in  1828.  Twenty-seven  more  dialogues  followed  as 
a  new  series  in  1829.  More  dialogues  were  written,  but 
not  published  until  1846.  Before  Florence  was  left,  Lan- 
dor  had  a  family  of  four  children.  His  "  Imaginary  Con- 
versations "  gave  him  literary  fame,  and  brought  new 
friends  who  were  fascinated  by  the  charm  of  kindly  gen- 
ius under  the  headstrong  impulsive  character.  His  fiercest 
wrath,  when  it  had  way,  would  end  usually  in  explosions 
of  laughter.  No  man's  compliments  were  more  delicate 
than  Landor's,  and  his  bluff  sincerity  gave  them  unusual 
value.  It  was  at  Florence  that  Lady  Blessington  made 
his  acquaintance.  He  acquired  at  once  a  foremost  place 
among  her  many  friends. 

Margaret  Power,  Countess  of  Blessington,  was  born  in 
1790,  the  daughter  of  an  Irish  squire  in  the  county  of 
Waterford.  She  had  beauty,  vivacity,  and  natural  refine- 
ment ;  but  was  most  unhappily  married  before  she  was 
fifteen  to  an  English  officer,  a  Captain  Farmer.  After  his 
death,  she  married,  in  1818,  an  Irish  peer,  the  Earl  of 
Blessington,  with  whom  her  life  became  luxurious  and 
easy.  They  spent  some  years  in  Italy,  which  yielded  to 
Lady  Blessington  matter  for  books.  Her  "  Conversations 
with  Lord  Byron,"  were  published  in  1832.  She  wrote 
also  "The  Idler  in  Italy"  and  "The  Idler  in  France." 
After  Lord  Blessington's  death,  in  1829,  Lady  Blessington 


I2V   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  133 

settled  at  Gore  House,  Kensington.  For  the  remaining 
twenty  years  of  her  life,  her  house  was  a  fashionable 
centre  of  intellectual  enjoyment.  There  she  was  at  home 
in  1837,  forty-eight  years  old,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  of  Victoria.  She  wrote  novels,  she  edited  fashiona- 
ble annuals,  "  the  Book  of  Beauty,"  and  "  the  Keepsake," 
and  she  and  Count  D'Orsay  had  a  pleasant  welcome  to 
her  social  circle  for  all  the  talents.  Count  Alfred  D'Orsay, 
nine  years  younger  than  Lady  Blessington,  was  the  son  of 
a  general  D'Orsay,  and  was  in  the  French  army  till  he 
attached  himself  to  Lord  and  Lady  Blessington.  In  1827 
he  married  Lord  Blessington's  daughter  by  a  former  mar- 
riage, but  soon  separated  from  her.  In  1829  he  returned 
with  Lady  Blessington  to  England  and  was  looked  upon 
as  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  fashionable  world.  Count 
D'Orsay  had  some  skill  in  drawing  and  sculpture  and  artis- 
tic tastes.  When  Landor  at  Florence  made  the  accpiiaint- 
ance  of  Lord  and  Lady  Blessington,  the  Count  was  their 
companion. 

In  1829,  when  Lady  Blessington  settled  at  Gore  House, 
Landor  bought,  with  help  of  money  lent  by  a  Welsh  ad- 
mirer, a  villa  at  Fiesole,  the  Villa  Gherardesca.  Boccaccio's 
Valley  of  Ladies  was  within  its  grounds.  There,  with  an 
occasional  stormy  outbreak  and  litigation  about  water- 
rights  that  would  have  delighted  Mr.  Tulliver,  he  was 
happy,  and  his  children  were  his  playfellows.  At  Fiesole 
he  prepared  a  revised  collection  of  his  poems,  which  was 
published  by  Edward  Moxon  in  1831,  "  Gebir,  Count 
Julian,  and  other  Poems."  In  1832  Landor  revisited 
England,  but  he  returned  next  year  to  Fiesole.  In  1834 
Lady  Blessington  superintended  for  him  the  anonymous 
publication  of  his  "  Citation  and  Examination  of  William 


134  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Shakespeare."  Landor  joined  with  it  a  dialogue  between 
Essex  and  Spenser  after  Spenser  had  been  driven  from 
Kilcolman.  Another  of  Landor's  books  written  at  Fiesole 
w;ts  his  "Pericles  and  Aspasia,"  in  two  volumes  of  letters. 
The  publishing  of  these  was  managed  for  him  by  his 
friend  and  sometime  neighbour  at  Fiesole,  the  novelist 
George  Payne  Rainsford  James,  who  had  published  his 
first  novel,  "  Richelieu,"  in  1825,  when  he  was  twenty-four 
years  old,  and  when  Walter  Scott,  by  whose  historical 
novels  he  was  moved  to  imitation,  was  still  writing.  In 
1835  Landor,  happy  in  his  children  but  not  in  his  wife, 
had  his  home  at  Fiesole  broken  up  by  domestic  feud. 
Not  enduring  his  wife's  speech  to  him  in  presence  of  his 
children,  he  parted  from  his  family  and,  after  a  few  months 
by  himself  at  Lucca,  came  to  England.  He  remained  in 
affectionate  correspondence  with  his  children,  and  did  not 
quarrel  with  his  wife's  relations.  He  went  for  a  time 
from  place  to  place  in  England  before  settling  again,  and 
then,  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Victoria,  in  October 
1837,  being  nearly  63  years  old,  he  returned  to  Bath.  In 
the  same  year  he  published  his  Imaginary  Conversations 
between  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio,  supposed  to  have  been 
held  on  five  successive  days,  which  he  called  "the  Pen- 
tameron,"  adding  to  the  book  five  various  dramatic  scenes, 
"  Pentalogia."  When  in  London,  Landor  was  happiest  as 
guest  at  Gore  House,  where  at  the  crowded  assemblies  he 
came  to  know  men  of  the  rising  generation,  and  where, 
among  others,  he  first  found  his  friend  John  Forster,  after- 
wards his  warmhearted  biographer,  and  Charles  Dickens, 
who  transferred  one  or  two  of  his  outward  peculiarities  to 
Mr.  Boy  thorn  in  Bleak  House. 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  135 


CHAPTER  V. 

JOURNALISTS    OF    THE     ELDER     GENERATION,    ESSAYISTS 

AND    POETS. 

We  turn  now  to  a  group  of  men  who  passed  as  elders 
into  the  reign  of  Victoria,  which  owed  much  to  them  for 
the  quickening  of  intellectual  discussion.  Francis  Jeffrey 
and  Sydney  Smith,  John  Wilson  and  Thomas  De  Quincey, 
forefathers  of  the  modern  race  of  quarterly  and  monthly 
journalists. 

Francis  Jeffrey  was  born  in  Edinburgh  in  1773.  At 
the  Edinburgh  High  School  he  was  under  Mr.  Fraser, 
who  afterwards  boasted  that  from  three  successive  classes, 
of  four  years  each,  he  turned  out  Scott,  Jeffrey  and 
Brougham.  He  remembered  Jeffrey  as  "a  little  clever 
anxious  boy,  always  near  the  top  of  the  class,  and  who 
never  lost  a  place  without  shedding  tears."  There  were 
120  boys  taught  in  the  class,  under  one  master,  without 
help  of  an  usher.  In  1787  Jeffrey  was  sent  to  Glasgow 
University,  which  he  left  for  a  session  at  Oxford.  There 
he  took  pains  to  get  rid  of  his  Scottish  accent,  and,  said 
Lord  Holland,  at  nineteen  he  had  lost  the  broad  Scotch 
but  gained  only  the  narrow  English.  From  Oxford  he 
returned  to  Edinburgh,  in  1792,  and  studied  law.  Having 
joined  the  debating  society  of  the  University,  the  Specu- 
lative Society,  which  had  been  founded  nearly  thirty  years 
before,  he  read  five  papers  in  it  and  was  much  influenced 


186  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

by  its  young  energies.     In  1794  he  was  called  to  the  Scot- 
tish bar,  and  hoped  for  practice. 

On  the  first  of  November  1801  Jeffrey  married  a  second 
cousin,  Catherine  Wilson,  daughter  of  the  Professor  of 
Church  History  at  St.  Andrews.  His  profession  up  to 
that  time  had  never  brought  him  in  <£100  a  year.  He 
and  his  wife  set  up  their  home  on  the  third  story  of  No. 
18  Buccleuch  Place.  He  furnished  his  study  for  £1.  18, 
his  dining  room  for  £13.  8,  and  his  drawing  room  for 
.£22. 19.  In  that  establishment  "the  Edinburgh  Review" 
was  born.  It  was  the  happiest  of  homes,  to  which  of 
evenings  came  quick  witted  friends,  apt  for  "  plain  living 
and  high  thinking."  One  of  them  was  Sydney  Smith, 
who  happened  then  to  be  preacher  at  the  episcopal  chapel 
in  Edinburgh.  Sydney  Smith  was  born  in  1771  at  Wood- 
ford in  Essex,  and  had  his  education  at  Winchester  School 
and  New  College  Oxford,  where  he  obtained  a  fellowship. 
He  took  orders  and  began  his  ministry  in  1794  as  curate 
at  Nether  Avon  in  Wiltshire,  not  very  far  from  Stone- 
henge.  Mr.  Hicks  Beach  was  Squire  of  the  parish,  and 
Sydney  Smith  himself  afterwards,  before  a  collection  of 
his  own  essays  from  the  "  Edinburgh  Review,"  told  briefly 
what  followed.  "  When  first  I  went  into  the  church  I 
had  a  curacy  in  the  middle  of  Salisbury  Plain.  The 
Squire  of  the  parish  took  a  fancy  to  me,  and  after  I  had 
served  it  two  years,  he  engaged  me  as  tutor  to  his  eldest 
son,  and  it  was  arranged  that  I  and  his  son  should  pro- 
ceed to  the  University  of  Weimar.  Before  reaching  our 
destination,  Germany  was  disturbed  by  war,  and  in  stress 
of  politics  we  put  into  Edinburgh,  where  I  remained  five 
years.  The  principles  of  the  French  Revolution  were 
then  fully  afloat,  and  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  a  more 


IN   THE  BEIGN  OF   VICTORIA.  137 

violent  and  agitated  state  of  society.  Among  the  first 
persons  with  whom  I  became  acquainted  were  Lord  Jef- 
frey, Lord  Murray  (late  Lord  Advocate  for  Scotland)  and 
Lord  Brougham ;  all  of  them  maintaining  opinions  upon 
political  subjects  a  little  too  liberal  for  the  dynasty  of 
Dundas,  then  exercising  supreme  political  power  over  the 
northern  division  of  the  island.  One  day  we  happened 
to  meet  in  the  eighth  or  ninth  story  or  flat "  (playful 
exaggeration  of  the  third)  "in  Buccleuch  Place,  the 
elevated  residence  of  the  then  Mr.  Jeffrey.  I  proposed 
that  we  should  set  up  a  '  Review ; '  this  was  acceded  to 
with  acclamation.  I  was  appointed  editor,  and  remained 
long  enough  in  Edinburgh  to  edit  the  first  number  of  the 
'  Edinburgh  Review.' '  The  first  direct  suggestion  of  a 
Review  may  have  come  from  Sydney  Smith,  but  the  first 
number  or  two  had  no  sole  editor;  the  projectors  man- 
aged it  among  them.  There  had  been  an  "  Edinburgh 
Review  "  of  which  the  first  number  appeared  in  January 
1755,  the  second  and  last  number  in  January  1756.  No. 
1  of  that  Review  had  included  a  slight  notice  by  Adam 
Smith  of  Johnson's  Dictionary.  The  desire  of  the  found- 
ers of  the  new  Review  was  to  deal  with  politics  as  well  as 
literature,  and  to  wage  energetic  war  against  all  wrongs 
for  which  they  sought  the  remedies.  No.  1  appeared  on 
the  10th  of  October  1802.  It  contained  seven  articles  by 
Sydney  Smith,  four  by  Leonard  Horner  and  five  by  Jef- 
frey. Four  have  been  ascribed  to  Brougham,  but  it  is 
doubtful  whether  Brougham  was  among  the  very  first 
who  wrote.  When  he  did  presently  join  in  the  work,  he 
was  one  of  the  most  active  writers,  equal  to  the  produc- 
tion of  a  whole  number  by  himself,  if  need  were.  The 
first  three  numbers  were  given  to  Archibald   Constable, 


138  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

the  publisher,  who  pledged  himself  to  take  the  risk  of  pro- 
ducing four.  While  the  freshness  and  courage  of  the 
new  Review,  the  wit  and  wisdom  applied  in  it  to  foremost 
questions  of  the  day,  were  spreading  its  fame  to  London, 
Jeffrey  himself  was  in  his  usual  or  natural  state  of  what 
Lord  Cockburn  calls  "a  lively  argumentative  despair." 
Jeffrey  himself  once  wrote  to  Malthus,  "  I  am  very  much 
in  a  state  of  despair,  while  I  have  scarcely  any  actual 
anxiety."  While  Constable  was  being  asked  by  Jeffrey 
whether  he  could  venture  to  print  a  fourth  number,  Syd- 
ney Smith  was  telling  him  that  he  must  maintain  and 
advance  the  success  of  the  Review  by  paying  <£10  a  sheet 
to  the  writers  in  it.  As  the  success  grew  rapidly,  the 
payment  was  raised  to  X16  a  sheet  as  minimum,  but  two 
thirds  of  the  writing  was  paid  for  at  a  higher  rate.  The 
average  rate  of  payment  for  a  sheet  under  Jeffrey's 
editorship  was  twenty  or  twenty-five  guineas. 

When  the  first  number  of  "  the  Edinburgh  Review " 
was  on  the  point  of  appearing  Jeffrey  had  a  son  born,  in 
September  1802,  who  died  in  a  few  weeks.  His  under- 
lying tenderness  of  character  made  the  memory  of  this 
loss  ever  afterwards  a  cause  of  nervous  anxiety  about 
children's  complaints  in  the  households  of  his  friends. 
Jeffrey's  wife  died  in  August  1805,  when  he  was  rising  at 
the  bar,  and  as  its  first  editor,  carrying  on  the  Review  to 
high  success.  He  acquired  his  wide  influence  by  nervous 
energy  in  the  pursuit  of  worthy  aims,  by  skill  with  the 
pen,  judgment  in  politics,  tact  in  relation  with  other  men. 
His  tact  was  due  to  a  temper  essentially  kind  and  sensi- 
tive, while  there  was  honest  freedom  everywhere  in 
expression  of  opinion.  His  quick  sensibility  gave  him  a 
rare  power  of  transforming  face  and  voice,  in  playful  mini- 


IN   THE  BEIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  139 

icry.  If  lie  did  not  like  the  work  of  his  best  friend,  and 
had  to  review  it,  he  could  not  review  dishonestly.  He 
was  not  a  man  of  genius,  and  his  judgments  in  literature 
have  not  stood  the  test  of  time.  His  censures  were 
emphatic,  although  there  the  working  of  his  gentleness 
of  character  not  seldom  crumbled  away  some  of  his  con- 
demnation before  all  was  said.  None,  however,  would 
have  inferred  from  the  tone  of  the  reviewer  that,  off 
paper,  he  was  one  of  the  kindest  and  most  sensitive  of 
men.  As  he  rose  at  the  bar  in  Edinburgh,  after  vain 
endeavours  to  satisfy  society  with  the  set  of  his  wig  over 
black  bushy  hair,  he  pleaded  without  his  wig,  and  was  for 
fifteen  or  twenty  years  almost  alone  in  doing  so.  In  1829 
he  became  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Scottish  bar,  and 
was  made  Dean  of  the  Faculty.  With  other  office  in 
view,  he  then  resigned  his  office  of  Editor  of  "  the  Edin- 
burgh Review."  In  1830  he  was  made  Lord  Advocate 
and  entered  Parliament.  After  the  Reform  Bill  he  was 
the  first  member  for  Edinburgh.  But  in  the  parliamen- 
tary conflict  he  was  not  at  ease.  His  health  also  had 
failed,  and  he  gave  up  political  ambition.  In  183-4  he 
became  a  Scotch  judge,  and  was  known  thenceforth,  by 
the  title  due  in  Scotland  to  his  office,  as  Lord  Jeffrey. 
That  was  his  position  at  the  accession  of  Queen  Victoria. 
He  was  among  the  veterans  of  Literature,  honoured  for 
what  he  was,  no't  living  upon  the  reputation  of  the  past, 
until  his  death  in  January  1850.  When  Jeffrejs  its  first 
editor,  resigned  his  charge  over  "  the  Edinburgh  Review," 
in  1829,  his  successor  was  Macvey  Napier,  one  of  the 
principal  clerks  of  the  Court  of  Session  at  Edinburgh 
and  Professor  of  Conveyancing  in  the  University.  He 
had  shown  his  literary  skill  and  powers  of  work  by  super- 


140  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

intending  a  new  edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica. 
He  was  editor  of  "  the  Edinburgh  Review "  from  1829 
during  the  rest  of  his  life.  But  he  died,  before  Jeffrey, 
in  1847. 

In  the  first  years  of  "  the  Edinburgh  Review  "  Walter 
Scott  was  among  Jeffrey's  friends,  and  he  also  was  a  con- 
tributor, for  intellectual  sympathies  were  stronger  than 
any  differences  of  political  opinion.  Scott  was  then  pub- 
lishing his  Border  Minstrelsy,  and  editing  Thomas  of 
Erceldoune.  Like  Jeffrey  he  practised  in  the  law  courts 
and  loved  literature.  In  1805  Scott's  genius  flashed  out 
in  "  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,"  and  he  suddenly  at- 
tained wide  fame.  But  when  Scott's  "  Marmion "  ap- 
peared, his  friend  Jeffrey  did  not  like  it,  thought  it 
unpatriotic,  and  found  fault  with  it  in  "the  Edinburgh 
Review."  When  the  criticism  appeared,  Jeffrey  sent  it  to 
Scott  with  a  generous  and  honest  little  note.  Scott  did 
not  abate  in  cordiality  towards  Jeffrey,  but  showed  very 
distinctly  that  he  had  lost  goodwill  towards  the  Review. 
He  fancied  that  he  had  been  among  the  writers  for  it  upon 
the  understanding  that  their  papers  would  be  rather 
literary  than  political,  imagined  they  had  broken  faith 
with  him,  and  ceased  to  contribute.  At  that  time  the 
founder  of  the  publishing  house  of  Murray  was  a  young 
man  with  a  small  shop  in  Fleet  Street  and  unbounded 
energies.  John  Murray  desired  a  share  in  the  profit  and 
credit  of  publishing  the  works  of  the  new  favourite,  Walter 
Scott.  He  made  advances,  at  last  found  his  way  to  Edin- 
burgh, and  heard  Scott's  grumbling  at  a  dinner  table  over 
the  Whig  Review,  at  a  time  when  Jeffrey's  grumbling  at 
"  Marmion  "  was  fresh  in  his  mind.  Murray  leapt  at  once 
to  the  conception  of  a  Review  on  the  other  side  to  match 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  141 

the  Edinburgh,  with  Scott  himself  promptly  engaged  for 
a  contributor.  In  that  way  "  the  Quarterly  Review  "  came 
into  life.  The  first  conception  passed  rapidly  on  to  birth 
of  the  new  journal,  of  which  No.  1  appeared  in  February, 
1809.  —  Its  first  editor  was  William  Gilford,  a  man  humbly 
born,  who  owed  his  rise  to  friends  won  by  his  conspicuous 
abilities.  He  had  proved  himself  a  keen  satirist  and  a 
good  English  scholar,  and  he  seemed  to  John  Murray  and 
the  promoters  of  his  new  Review  the  right  man  to  com- 
pete as  editor  with  Francis  Jeffrey. 

Gifford  died  in  1826.  His  successor  in  charge  of  "the 
Quarterly  "  was  John  Gibson  Lockhart,  who  was  its  editor 
from  1825  to  1853.  Lockhart's  age  was  only  forty-two  at 
the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Victoria.  He  was  born  in 
1793,  studied  at  Glasgow  where  his  father  was  minister  of 
the  College  Church,  and  after  three  years  at  the  Glasgow 
University  won  a  Bursary  that  enabled  him  to  continue 
his  studies  at  Baliol  College,  Oxford.  He  left  Oxford  for 
Edinburgh,  read  there  for  the  Scottish  bar,  and  was  called 
in  1816.  In  the  following  year  his  keen  relish  for  litera- 
ture brought  him  into  active  fellowship  with  John  Wilson 
and  the  men  who  were  in  that  year  founding  the  fortunes 
of  "  Blackwood's  Edinburgh  Magazine."  He  was  then  a 
young  man  of  four  and  twenty,  thin,  eager,  skilful  in  cari- 
cature with  pen  and  pencil,  and  with  an  outward  manner 
that  seemed  cold  and  supercilious.  For  his  gift  of  stinging, 
he  was  figured  by  his  comrades  as  the  Scorpion,  but  they 
and  other  of  Lockhart's  intimate  friends  found  good  reason 
to  like  him  heartily.  In  1820  he  married  the  eldest  daugh- 
ter of  Sir  Walter  Scott.  In  1823  he  published  a  volume 
of  Spanish  Ballads,  translated  into  English  verse  with  a 
poetic  vigour  that  has   caused  good  Spanish  scholars  to 


142  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

doubt  whether  they  may  not  be  better  than  the  originals. 
He  published  also  four  good  novels,  "Valerius,"  in  1821, 
"  Adam  Blair,"  in  1822,  "  Reginald  Dalton,"  in  1823,  and 
"  Matthew  Wald,"  in  1824.  In  1828  he  published  a  "  Life 
of  Burns."  When  Sir  Walter  Scott  died  in  1832  he  left 
his  son-in-law  sole  literary  executor,  and  at  the  beginning 
of  the  reign  of  Victoria,  John  Gibson  Lockhart  was  pro- 
ducing the  seven  volumes  of  his  full  and  elaborate  "  Life 
of  Scott." 

John  Wilson,  foremost  of  the  group  of  men  busy  in 
1817  over  the  establishment  of  Blackwood's  Magazine,  was 
about  eight  years  older  than  Lockhart.  Like  his  friend 
Thomas  De  Quincey  he  earned  his  place  in  literature  as  a 
journalist,  and  the  points  of  likeness  and  difference  be- 
tween these  two  friends  make  it  convenient  to  speak  of 
them  together.  They  were  born  in  the  same  year  1785, 
John  Wilson,  the  son  of  a  gauze  manufacturer  at  Paisley, 
Thomas  De  Quincey,  son  of  a  Manchester  merchant. 
John  Wilson  was  educated  chiefly  at  a  school  kept  in 
the  manse  of  the  neighbouring  parish  of  Mearns.  His 
teacher  did  not  check  the  love  of  outdoor  life  and  nature 
that  brightened  his  work  in  afterlife.  If  the  pupil  shut 
up  his  Greek  and  said,  "  I  should  like  to  go  fishing,"  the 
teacher  said,  "  Go,  fish."  When  twelve  years  old,  Wilson 
left  Mearns  for  the  Glasgow  University.  His  father  had 
died,  leaving  him  £50,000.  He  was  at  Glasgow  for  six 
years,  in  Professor  Jardine's  family,  and  was  eighteen 
years  old  when  he  entered  as  a  gentleman  commoner  at 
Magdalene  College,  Oxford.  He  was  at  Oxford  for  the 
next  three  years  and  a  half.  At  twenty-one  he  was  one 
of  the  athletes  of  the  University.  He  had  a  broad  chest, 
much  red-brown  hair,  enormous  whiskers,  his  height  was 


IN   TUE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  143 

five  foot  eleven,  and  he  was  the  best  man  at  a  long  jump 
in  all  England,  doing  twenty-three  feet  on  a  dead  level. 
Once,  when  insulted  in  the  street  as  he  came  from  a  din- 
ner-party in  a  London  square,  he  knocked  down  his  assail- 
ant and,  to  avoid  question  over  a  street  row,  proceeded  as 
he  was  to  Oxford,  and  reached  his  college  gate  as  it  was 
being  opened  in  the  morning.  His  studies,  like  his  pleas- 
ures, were  fastened  upon  heartily.  He  graduated,  and 
in  1807,  settled  at  Elleray  by  Windermere,  aged  twenty- 
two,  with  ample  means  and  vigorous  of  mind  and  body. 
Thomas  De  Quincey  was  the  fifth  of  six  children  of  a 
Manchester  merchant  who  died  of  consumption  at  the  age 
of  39,  leaving  to  his  widow  and  family  £30,000  and  a 
house  near  Manchester  at  Greenhays.  This  son  Thomas 
was  precocious  and  sensitive.  He  was  educated  at  home 
and  at  the  Bath  Grammar  School.  At  fifteen  he  was 
eager  to  go  to  Oxford,  but  it  was  felt  that  his  share  of  the 
patrimony  hardly  yielded  enough  to  meet  University  ex- 
penses without  aid  from  an  exhibition,  which  could  cer- 
tainly be  earned  at  the  Manchester  Grammar  School  if  he 
went  there  for  three  years.  He  went  most  unwillingly.  He 
worked  hard  in  his  own  way,  and  before  he  left  school  his 
master  said  of  him  to  a  friend,  "  That  boy  could  harangue 
an  Athenian  mob  better  than  you  or  I  could  address 
an  English  one."  But  it  was  an  abiding  grievance  to  him 
that  an  enthusiastic  head  master  continued  his  lessons 
into  the  time  left  for  exercise  between  school  and  dinner. 
This,  he  said,  disordered  his  liver,  and  when  they  gave 
him  a  dose  of  medicine  that  he  described  as  "a  tiger 
drench,"  his  cup  of  wrath  was  full.  He  borrowed  five 
pounds  and  ran  away  to  Chester ;  wandered  into  Wales ; 
found  his  way  to  London.    There  in  his  utter  poverty  and 


144  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

solitude  he  had  divers  adventures,  and  first  felt  the  en- 
joyment of  a  dose  of  opium,  given  to  him  at  a  chemist's 
shop  in  Oxford  Street,  to  relieve  rheumatic  pains  of  the 
head  and  face.  He  was  at  last  found  and  recovered.  In 
October  1803  he  went  to  Oxford,  where  his  name  was  on 
the  books  of  Worcester  College  until  1808.  But  he 
studied  in  his  own  way,  sought  neither  University  honours 
nor  College  friends.  Even  his  tutor  he  kept  at  a  distance, 
confining  intercourse  between  them  to  the  matter  of  their 
studies.  De  Quincey  began  at  Oxford  his  habit  of  taking 
opium  as  a  means  of  intellectual  excitement.  The  depres- 
sion following  the  exaltation  invites  to  another  dose.  The 
body,  dried  and  enfeebled  by  the  action  of  the  drug,  calls 
for  increased  doses ;  opium  being  one  of  the  drugs  of 
which  what  is  called  a  tolerance  becomes  established,  so 
that  doses  can  sometimes  be  gradually  increased  until  the 
daily  allowance  becomes  more  than  would  suffice  for  poi- 
soning a  score  of  people.  In  the  year  before  he  left  Ox- 
ford, De  Quincey  made  the  acquaintance  of  Coleridge, 
"Wordsworth  and  Southey,  and  when  he  was  free  to  choose 
his  dwelling-place,  he  chose,  in  the  winter  of  1808,  the 
little  cottage  at  Grasmere  in  which  Wordsworth  began 
housekeeping  at  the  Lakes,  and  which  had  then  been  left 
by  Wordsworth  for  Allan  Bank.  Wordsworth's  old  cottage 
—  it  was  called  Dove  Cottage  because  it  had  once  been 
a  little  inn  called  the  Dove  and  Olive  Branch  —  was  De 
Quincey's  home  from  1808  till  1829,  and  he  continued  to 
rent  it  until  1836.  Here,  by  the  year  1813,  his  use  of 
opium  had  grown  into  a  daily  habit.  In  1816  he  was 
taking  eight  thousand  drops  a  day  of  laudanum ;  eight 
thousand  drops  are  within  very  little  of  a  pint.  But  when 
he  married,  in  that  year,  1816,  he  reduced  his  allowance 
to  a  thousand  drops. 


IN   THE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  145 

John  Wilson  was  in  those  days  De  Quincey's  nearest 
friend.  He  had  first  found  him  in  Wordsworth's  study 
"  in  a  sailor's  dress,  manifestly  in  robust  health,  and  wear- 
ing upon  his  countenance  a  powerful  expression  of  ardour 
and  animated  intelligence,  mixed  with  much  good  nature." 
De  Quincey  and  Wilson  both  loved  the  poets,  looked  up 
with  reverence  to  Wordsworth,  and  in  their  unlike  bodies 
had  eager  minds.  So  Wilson  strode  over  the  hills  with 
De  Quincey  trotting  by  his  side,  and  the  friendship  lasted. 
In  1811  John  Wilson  married,  and  early  in  1812  published 
his  poem  of  "  the  Isle  of  Palms  "  that  helped  to  pay  for 
his  wedding  trip.  The  "  Isle  of  Palms "  shows  action 
upon  the  young  poet's  mind  of  the  two  influences  of  Scott 
and  Wordsworth,  and  has  its  plot  formed  on  suggestion  of 
those  problems  of  civilization  that  were  common  in  litera- 
ture at  the  turn  of  the  century,  and  of  which  Kotzebue's 
"  La  Perouse  "  is  an  example.  Children  were  born,  and 
John  Wilson  was  enjoying  life  by  Windermere  ;  with  boats, 
a  little  fleet  of  his  own,  upon  the  lake  ;  with  vigorous 
enjoyment  of  his  strength  of  limb ;  and,  as  one  of  his 
poems  shows,  his  inner  life  stirred  to  the  depths  in 
nightlong  mountain-walks  beneath  the  stars.  Then  came 
to  him  the  most  fortunate  event  of  his  life.  In  1815,  at 
the  age  of  thirty,  he  lost  all  his  money  by  the  failure  of 
an  uncle  in  whose  hands  its  management  was  placed. 
John  Wilson  made  no  complaint,  but  he  gave  up  his  idler 
enjoyment  and  buckled  to  work.  He  left  Elleray  with 
his  family,  and  was  for  a  time  under  strict  discipline  hi 
his  mother's  patriarchal  household  at  53  Queen  Street. 
He  was  called  to  the  bar  a  year  before  John  Gibson  Lock- 
hart.  He  published  in  1816  a  dramatic  poem,  "  the  City 
of  the  Plague,"  and  was  ready  to  thrive  by  Law  or  Litera- 


146  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ture,  when  there  came  the  opportunity  for  which  he  had 
not  long  to  wait.  In  December  1816  William  Blackwood, 
the  publisher,  entertained  the  proposals  of  two  gentlemen, 
fierce  James  Cleghorn,  known  as  the  editor  of  a  Farmer's 
Magazine,  and  mild  Thomas  Pringle,  a  writer  and  poet, 
who  afterwards  visited  South  Africa.  They  suggested  the 
want  of  a  new  Tory  monthly  magazine  for  Edinburgh,  to 
supersede  "  the  Scots  Magazine "  which  was  Whig  and 
had  become  feeble.  "  The  Edinburgh  Monthly  Magazine  " 
appeared,  therefore,  in  April  1817,  under  the  management 
of  its  projectors.  After  the  second  number  editors  and 
publishers  were  at  feud.  In  June  the  publisher  advertised 
that  at  the  end  of  three  months  from  that  date  the  Maga- 
zine would  be  discontinued.  The  editors  were  then  per- 
suaded to  take  £125  for  their  share  in  the  copyright,  and 
the  seventh  number,  first  of  a  new  series,  appeared  with 
its  name  altered  to  "  Blackwood's  Edinburgh  Magazine," 
the  publisher  keeping  in  his  own  hands  all  privileges  of 
editor,  and  looking  about  for  vigorous  articles  from  the 
cleverest  young  Tories  he  could  find.  The  first  number 
of  "  Blackwood  "  was  alive  with  dashing  personality.  It 
attacked  Coleridge  and  Leigh  Hunt,  and  it  gave  a  history 
of  itself  in  the  form  of  a  "  Translation  from  an  Ancient 
Chaldee  MS.,"  in  which  it  parodied  the  style  of  the 
Book  of  Revelation.  Mr.  Blackwood  of  17  Princes  Street 
was  a  man  clothed  in  plain  apparel  who  stood  in  the  door 
of  his  house,  and  his  name  was  as  it  had  been  the  colour 
of  ebony,  and  there  came  up  to  him  two  great  beasts  — 
the  former  editors,  "  the  one  beast  was  like  unto  a  lamb, 
and  the  other  like  unto  a  bear."  When  Blackwood  called 
other  friends  to  his  help  the  "  two  beasts  "  went  over  to 
Constable,  "  a  man  who  was  crafty  in  counsel,"  publisher 


IN   TIIE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  147 

of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  and  edited  his  "  Scots  Maga- 
zine." Blackwood  took  heart  and  was  encouraged  by  his 
friends,  but  perplexed  by  multitude  of  advisers,  until  the 
veiled  editor  appeared  and  summoned  his  instruments. 
The  first  was  John  Wilson,  who  is  thus  described:  "And 
the  first  which  came  was  after  the  likeness  of  the  beautiful 
leopard,  from  the  valley  of  the  palm-trees,  whose  going 
forth  was  comely  as  the  greyhound,  and  his  eyes  as  the 
lightning  of  fiery  flame."  Lockhart  was  thus  figured  : 
"  There  came  also,  from  a  far  country,  the  scorpion,  which 
delighteth  to  sting  the  faces  of  men,  that  he  might  sting 
sorely  the  countenance  of  the  man  which  is  crafty  and  of 
the  two  beasts."  This  whimsical  piece,  representing  the 
beginning  of  the  war  of  Whigs  and  Tories  from  the  camps 
of  Constable  and  Blackwood,  included  about  forty  sketches 
of  leading  Edinburgh  men  in  verses  that  shocked  many  a 
reader  as  irreverent  caricatures  of  the  phraseology  of  the 
Apocalypse.  John  Wilson  was  the  leading  spirit  in  the 
magazine.  By  the  end  of  1819,  its  prosperity  enabled 
him  with  his  wife  and  five  children  to  set  up  a  home  of 
his  own,  and  in  the  next  year,  when  he  was  35  years  old, 
though  he  knew  nothing  of  the  subject  he  proposed  to 
teach,  he  was  set  up,  on  the  Tory  side,  as  candidate  for 
the  vacant  chair  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  University  of 
Edinburgh.  Though  his  opponent  was  Sir  William  Hamil- 
ton, he  was  elected  by  a  Tory  Town  Council,  and  at  his 
first  lecture  conquered  a  hostile  throng  of  students  by  the 
simple  manliness  with  which  he  set  about  his  work.  He 
had  studied  hard  during  the  vacation  and  prepared  his 
course.  Thenceforth,  as  Professor  Wilson,  his  frank  kind- 
liness made  him  a  power  over  the  hearts  of  the  young. 
As  "  Christopher  North,"  his  wit  and  humour,  his  poetic 


148  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

sense  of  nature,  his  heartiness  not  only  in  hard  hitting 
but  in  generosity  where  he  saw  need,  not  only  in  the 
"Noctes  Ambrosianse" —  Nights  at  Ambrose's  Tavern 
—  but  in  papers  of  all  kinds,  gave  to  the  pages  of 
Blackwood  health  and  vigour.  He  died  in  April  1854. 
He  was  ill  in  1852  when  Macaulay  was  rejected  at  Edin- 
burgh, and  rose  from  a  sick-bed  to  vote  for  him,  Whig  as 
he  was,  because  he  was  ashamed  of  the  cry  raised  agaiust 
a  worthy  man  of  letters. 

De  Quincey  who  had  published  the  "  Confessions  of  an 
English  Opium  Eater,"  in  1821,  in  "the  London  Maga- 
zine," lived  chiefly  by  journalism.  He  wrote  about  fifty 
papers  in  "  Blackwood,"  left  Grasmere  in  1829,  was  drawn 
to  Edinburgh  by  the  friendship  of  John  Wilson,  and  in 
1843  settled  at  the  cottage  Scott  once  had  occupied  at 
Lasswade  near  Edinburgh.  He  died  in  1859.  His  col- 
lected magazine  papers  constitute  his  works  in  14  volumes. 

John  Foster,  who  was  born  in  the  year  of  Wordsworth's 
birth,  1770,  and  died  in  1843,  the  year  of  Southey's  death, 
was  essayist  of  another  kind.  He  was  of  Yorkshire  family, 
educated  at  Bristol  at  the  Baptist  College,  and  thenceforth 
a  preacher.  He  is  remembered  for  his  thoughtful  essays 
"  on  Decision  of  Character  "  and  other  subjects  that  direct- 
ly concern  the  building  up  of  citizens.  His  Essay  "on 
the  Evils  of  Popular  Ignorance,"  striking  the  same  note, 
allied  his  thoughtful  teaching  to  the  work  of  men  who 
were  labouring  for  the  advance  of  education. 

James  Montgomery,  a  year  younger  than  Wordsworth, 
was  born  at  Irvine  in  Ayrshire,  in  November  1771.  He 
was  the  son  of  a  Moravian  Missionary,  who  left  him  at  a 
Moravian  school  in  Yorkshire  to  be  educated  while  he 
went  to  preach  to  the  negro  slaves  in  the  West  Indies. 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  149 

Montgomery  never  again  saw  father  or  mother.  They 
died  in  the  West  Indies.  The  boy  was  placed  by  the 
brotherhood  in  a  general  shop  kept  by  a  Moravian  at 
Mirfield.  He  was  a  verse  smitten  boy,  and  as  his  verses 
multiplied  his  literary  ambition  rose,  and  he  set  off  to 
walk  to  London  in  search  of  a  publisher.  On  the  way  he 
was  obliged  to  halt,  and  take  a  situation  in  another  general 
shop.  At  last  the  youth  and  his  poems  reached  London 
and  a  publisher  was  found.  He  did  not  want  the  poems, 
but  offered  Montgomery  a  place  as  shopman.  Montgomery 
was  glad  to  accept  it,  and  from  this  position  transferred 
his  services  in  1792  to  a  Mr.  Gales  in  Sheffield,  a  book- 
seller, who  had  set  up  a  newspaper,  "  the  Sheffield  Regis- 
ter." Montgomery  managed  the  printing  of  this,  and  also 
wrote  in  it.  The  times  were  astir  with  revolutionary 
hope ;  the  English  government,  in  dread  lest  fire  should 
spread  from  France  to  England,  was  seeking  to  put  down 
the  expression  of  distasteful  opinions,  Mr.  Gales  had  to 
leave  England  to  escape  government  prosecution.  His 
assistant,  James  Montgomery,  continued  the  paper;  with 
a  significant  change  of  its  name  to  the  symbol  of  hope,  he 
called  it  "  the  Sheffield  Iris."  He  was  prosecuted,  fined 
and  imprisoned  for  a  song  on  the  Fall  of  the  Bastille  and 
an  account  given  in  the  "  Iris "  of  a  riot  at  Sheffield. 
But  after  his  release  he  went  on  with  his  paper,  and  pub- 
lished verses  written  in  prison  as  "  Prison  Amusements." 
Thenceforth  James  Montgomery,  as  journalist  and  poet, 
was  a  leader  of  thought  in  Sheffield,  with  an  influence 
extending  over  England.  His  enthusiasm  for  the  better 
life  of  man  on  earth  was  associated  with  a  deep  religious 
feeling.  His  volumes  of  poems  "the  Ocean,"  in  1805, 
"the    Wanderer   in    Switzerland,"   in    1806,    "the   West 


150  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Indies,"  in  1809,  "  the  World  before  the  Flood,"  in  1812, 
though  he  was  attacked  in  the  "  Edinburgh  Review," 
deserved  the  reputation  they  still  hold.  In  1819  followed 
"  Greenland,"  a  poem  in  five  cantos,  in  1828  "  The  Pelican 
Island,"  and  in  1836,  the  year  before  the  accession  of 
Victoria,  there  was  a  collected  edition  of  his  Poems  in 
three  volumes.  A  volume  of  Original  Hymns,  published 
in  1846,  was  added  by  him  to  the  literature  of  the  present 
reign.  Sir  Robert  Peel  made  the  poet's  latter  years  easier 
by  a  pension  of  <£150,  and  he  died  on  the  30th  of  April, 
1854. 

Thomas  Campbell,  who  in  the  last  year  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  sang  "the  Pleasures  of  Hope,"  was  six 
years  younger  than  James  Montgomery,  but  the  elder 
man  outlived  the  younger  by  ten  years.  Thomas  Camp- 
bell, led  by  his  first  great  success  to  become  a  working 
man  of  letters,  had  produced  occasional  volumes  of  poetry 
finished  with  the  utmost  care.  "  Gertrude  of  Wyoming  " 
and  other  poems  appeared  in  1809 ;  "  Theodric  "  with  other 
poems  in  1824,  and  there  was  a  new  edition  of  his  poetical 
works  in  1828,  when  the  copyrights  had  all  reverted  to 
him.  But  while  he  thus  cared  for  his  place  among  the 
poets  he  was  earning  by  hurried  task  work,  much  of  it 
done  as  editor  of  magazines.  He  edited  for  some  time 
"  the  New  Monthly."  In  1819  he  was  producing  his  seven 
volumes  of  "  Specimens  of  the  British  Poets,"  with  critical 
essays.  Charles  James  Fox  obtained  for  him  a  pension  of 
£200  a  year.  In  1826  he  was  honoured  by  election  to 
the  dignity  of  Rector  of  his  old  University,  Glasgow. 
At  the  same  time  he  became  a  leader  among  those  who 
were  engaged  in  the  foundation  of  the  London  University. 
In   those   days   the  honours  of  the  English  Universities 


IN   TUE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  151 

were  denied  to  dissenters,  and  all  public  school  education 
in  England  held  by  the  old  tradition  that  associated  it 
entirely  with  the  established  form  of  the  Church  in  which 
it  had  its  origin.  The  dissenters  proposed  a  University 
in  London  for  themselves.  Brougham  would  have  followed 
their  lead,  but  Campbell  urged,  against  many  difficulties, 
the  nobler  conception  of  a  London  University  tied  to  no 
party  and  no  sect,  but  offering  to  all  the  highest  culture, 
and  his  view  prevailed.  In  1828,  when  Campbell  had  a 
pleasure  of  hope  fulfilled  by  the  opening  of  the  building 
designed  for  the  London  University,  he  lost  his  wife,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  year  he  was  honoured  by  election  for 
the  third  time  to  the  Lord  Rectorship  of  the  University 
of  Glasgow.  At  the  end  of  1830  Campbell  had  ceased  to 
edit  "the  New  Monthly,"  of  which  he  said,  "it  was  im- 
possible to  continue  editor  without  interminable  scrapes, 
together  with  a  law-suit  now  and  then."  The  editorship 
had  added  £600  a  year  to  a  limited  and  encumbered 
income.  Campbell  meant  to  escape  from  slavery,  write 
at  his  own  will  and  live  content  upon  a  little.  But  when 
he  broke  from  his  old  relations  a  heavy  balance  against 
him  made  itself  felt,  and  he  was  compelled  to  fall  back 
upon  other  hackwork,  and  knew  many  troubles.  Stirred 
by  the  taking  of  Warsaw  in  1831,  he  helped  with  money, 
ill  to  be  spared,  and  with  a  manly  sympathy.  By  the 
Poles  themselves  he  was  declared  in  their  journals  to  be 
the  man  in  England  to  whom  they  owed  most  gratitude. 
He  then  set  on  foot  the  formation  of  "  the  Polish  Asso- 
ciation," and  was  enabled  by  the  generosity  of  his  rich 
brother  poet  Samuel  Rogers  to  pay  £500  for  a  third  share 
in  the  proprietorship  of  a  magazine,  "  the  Metropolitan," 
that  he  was  editing.     Discovering  in  good  time  that  the 


152  OF  ENGLISn  LITERATURE 

share  was  worth  less  than  nothing,  he  with  difficulty  got 
the  money  back,  and  repaid  it  to  Rogers.  He  set  to  work 
then  on  the  Life  of  Mrs.  Siddons,  which  was  published  in 
1834 ;  but  did  not  cease  to  edit  "  the  Metropolitan,"  which 
came  soon  afterwards  into  the  possession  of  Captain  Mar- 
ryat,  a  kindly  friend.  Campbell  at  this  time  was  practising 
in  lodgings  a  close  economy,  and  paid  off  in  three  years 
£900  of  debt.  After  the  publication  of  the  Life  of  Mrs. 
Siddons,  in  1834,  he  took  a  trip  to  Paris  and  was  tempted 
to  run  farther  south  to  Algiers.  He  started  with  close 
and  doubtful  calculations  about  payment  of  the  costs  of 
travel,  but  news  of  a  legacy  came  to  relieve  his  doubts, 
and  he  returned  to  London  with  his  weak  health  strength- 
ened.  Then  he  made  a  book  of  his  experiences,  "  Letters 
from  the  South,"  published  in  1837.  Thus  at  the  age  of 
sixty  he  was  continuing  his  life  into  the  reign  of  Queen 
Victoria. 

During  the  first  two  years  of  the  reign  Campbell  was 
steadily  working  in  chambers,  at  61  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields, 
upon  his  "  Life  of  Petrarch."  He  planned  also  an  edition 
of  his  poems  for  the  people,  which  was  published  by  Ed- 
ward Moxon  in  1839,  printed  in  double-columns  and  at 
the  price  of  two  shillings.  He  was  at  work  also  on  a  new 
poem,  "The  Pilgrim  of  Glencoe,"  published,  with  other 
poems  then  first  collected,  in  1842.  In  1840  the  sense  of 
solitude  of  chambers  had  driven  Campbell  to  take  a  house 
in  Pimlico,  and  establish  himself  in  it  with  a  niece,  whom 
he  had  educated,  for  his  housekeeper.  This  was  his  last 
home  in  England.  "  The  Pilgrim  of  Glencoe  "  was  coldly 
received.  Campbell  had  relied  on  profit  from  it.  He  had 
cashed  expectancies,  and  felt  that  the  costs  of  his  new 
house  would  be  beyond  his  means.     Health  and  vigour 


IN   TUE  REIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  153 

were  failing.  The  sale  of  his  collected  poems  fell  away, 
and,  while  waiting  until  he  could  get  rid  of  his  house,  he 
was  planning  a  subscription  edition  of  his  poems.  But 
the  author  of  "  the  Pleasures  of  Memory,"  always  a  good 
friend  to  the  author  of  "  the  Pleasures  of  Hope,"  brought 
Campbell  into  relations  with  Edward  Moxon,  the  poet's 
publisher.  Edward  Moxon  published  a  volume  of  Sonnets 
of  his  own,  and  if  they  are  not  immortal  they  were  signs 
of  a  love  for  the  poets  that  affected  pleasantly  his  business 
relations  with  them.  Here  also  the  publisher  made  gen- 
erous arrangements  that  relieved  the  poet  of  much  care. 
Edward  Moxon  was  one  of  the  few  friends  who  crossed 
to  Boulogne  to  take  leave  of  the  poet  when  he  lay  there 
dying.     He  died  on  the  15th  of  June  1844. 

Thus  far  the  press  of  forward  battle  had  been  urged  in 
their  youth  by  those  of  whom  the  youngest  combatant  was 
sixty  years  old  in  1837.  After  the  accession  of  Victoria 
they  still  joined  in  the  strife  on  which  it  had  become  the 
part  of  other  men  to  spend  the  fresh  force  of  their  lives. 
As  they  fell,  men  of  the  next  generation  pressed  into  their 
places. 


154  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


CHAPTER  VI. 

OF    WOMEN  WHO   WROTE    IN    THE    EARLY  PART   OF   THE 

REIGN. 

Joanna  Baillie  and  Miss  Edge  worth  were  the  veter- 
ans of  literature  who  represented  in  1837  the  woman's  part 
in  the  work  of  civilization.  Eldest  among  the  younger 
women  was  Barbara  Hofland,  born  in  1770,  of  like  age 
therefore  with  Wordsworth.  Frances  Trollope  was  then 
59 ;  Lucy  Aikin,  56  ;  Lady  Morgan,  54 ;  Mary  Somerville, 
45 ;  Mary  Howitt,  37 ;  Harriet  Martineau  and  Letitia 
Elizabeth  Landon,  otherwise  unlike,  were  alike  in  being 
35  years  old ;  Anna  Maria  Hall  was  33 ;  Caroline  Eliza- 
beth Norton,  29,  and  Elizabeth  Barrett,  afterwards  Mrs. 
Browning,  who  has  earned  the  first  rank  among  English 
poetesses,  was  also  twenty-nine.  There  was  also  Lady 
Charlotte  Elizabeth  Guest,  afterwards  Lady  Charlotte 
Schreiber,  who  in  the  year  1838,  at  the  age  of  about  five 
and  twenty,  enriched  English  Literature  with  a  transla- 
tion of  old  Welsh  Romances  from  a  MS.  in  the  Library  of 
Jesus  College,  Oxford,  —  the  Llyfr  Coch  o  Hergest,  the 
Red  Book  of  Hergest,  — as  "the  Mabinogion,"  stories  for 
the  young,  "  mab  "  being  Welsh  for  a  child.  From  one  of 
the  tales  in  this  collection,  "  Geraint,  the  Son  of  Erbin," 
Tennyson  framed  his  poem  of  "  Geraint  and  Enid." 

Lady  Morgan,  born  in  1783  as  Sydney  Owenson,  the 
daughter  of  an  Irish  songwriter,  acquired  reputation  in 


IN  TIIE  IiEIGN  OF   VICTORIA.  155 

180G  by  her  third  novel  "  the  Wild  Irish  Girl "  and  then 
became,  as  a  writer  of  light  literature,  active  and  popular, 
expressing  liberal  opinions.  In  1811  she  married  Sir 
Charles  Morgan,  a  physician  with  literary  tastes.  She 
died  in  1859,  and  in  the  early  years  of  the  reign  of  Vic- 
toria, like  Lady  Blessington,  she  folded  in  her  drawing- 
room  at  evening  a  little  flock  of  authors.  Her  Memoirs 
were  published  after  her  death. 

Mary  Somerville  was  the  first  to  shake  man's  comforta- 
ble faith  in  the  incapacity  of  women  for  scientific  thought. 
She  was  the  daughter  of  Vice  Admiral  Fairfax,  was  born 
at  Jedburgh  in  1792,  and  was  sent  to  a  school  at  Mussel- 
burgh. She  had  a  natural  taste  for  the  study  of  mathe- 
matics, which  was  quickened  by  association  with  the  studies 
of  a  young  seaman  whom  she  married  early  in  life,  Captain 
Greig.  She  married  afterwards  a  cousin,  Dr.  Somerville. 
In  1826  Mrs.  Somerville  had  presented  a  memoir  to  the 
Royal  Society  on  the  magnetising  power  of  the  more 
refrangible  solar  rays.  In  1831  she  produced  an  English 
paraphrase  of  Laplace's  "Mechanism  of  the  Heavens," 
begun  at  the  suggestion  of  Lord  Brougham  for  instruc- 
tion of  the  people.  If  it  had  not  outgrown  the  required 
limits  it  would  have  been  issued  as  one  of  the  cheap  vol- 
umes of  the  "  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowl- 
edge." In  a  book,  wholly  her  own,  on  "the  Connexion 
of  the  Physical  Sciences  "  first  published  in  1834,  and  re- 
published in  many  editions,  Mrs.  Somerville  applied  exact 
knowledge  to  a  broad  generalization  that  should  help  men 
to  draw  from  the  outer  world  some  sense  of  the  harmonies 
of  the  universe.  Her  "  Physical  Geography "  belongs  to 
the  reign  of  Victoria.  It  was  published  in  1848,  and  its 
aim,  like   that   of  the   preceding  work,  was   to  enlarge 


156  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

culture,  in  this  case  by  widening  the  sense  of  those  great 
operations  of  nature  which  immediately  affect  the  condi- 
tions of  the  life  of  man.  Mrs.  Somerville's  clearness  of  ex- 
pression and  habitual  breadth  of  view  gave  a  charm  to  her 
books  that  made  them  for  many  years  a  powerful  aid  to 
the  advance  of  knowledge  into  wisdom.  In  her  later  life 
Mrs.  Somerville  settled  in  Italy,  and  she  died  at  Naples  in 
November,  1872. 

Lucy  Aikin  was  probably  drawn  into  literature  by  the 
examples  of  her  aunt,  Mrs.  Barbauld,  and  her  father  Dr. 
John  Aikin,  a  physician  who  made  literature  his  business. 
Dr.  Aikin  edited  a  magazine,  took  part  in  editing  a  bio- 
graphical dictionary,  and  devised  a  popular  book  for  the 
young,  called  "  Evenings  at  Home."  His  daughter  Lucy 
began  to  write  for  magazines  when  she  was  seventeen, 
and  obtained  credit  in  1818  for  the  first  of  her  books  of 
Historical  Memoirs,  "  Memoirs  of  the  Court  of  Queen 
Elizabeth."  She  continued  the  series  with  "  Memoirs 
of  the  Court  of  James  I."  in  1822,  the  year  of  her  father's 
death,  and  published  in  the  following  year  a  memoir  of  her 
father.  She  then  settled  at  Hampstead,  and  lived  chiefly 
there  until  her  death,  having  Joanna  Baillie  until  1851  for 
friend  and  neighbour.  In  1825  her  father's  sister,  Mrs. 
Barbauld,  died.  She  had  been  born  Anna  Lsetitia  Aikin, 
and  Lucy  Aikin  published  her  works  with  a  memoir.  In 
1833  the  series  of  Historical  Memoirs  was  continued  with 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Court  of  Charles  I."  The  Life  of  Addi- 
son in  1843  and  a  volume  of  Holiday  Stories  in  1858  were 
the  only  books  published  by  Lucy  Aikin  in  the  reign  of 
Victoria.     She  died  in  January  1865. 

Mrs.  Hofland  had  died  in  1844  at  the  age  of  74.  Hers 
also  had   been  a  literary  life  of  modest  usefulness.     As 


IN  TIIE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  157 

Barbara  Wreaks,  of  Sheffield,  she  had  married  and  become 
Mrs.  Hoole.  In  two  years  she  was  a  widow,  and  had  to 
support  herself.  She  published  some  poems  in  1805,  and 
set  up  a  school  at  Harrogate.  In  1808  she  married  the 
landscape  painter,  Thomas  Christopher  Hofland,  and  her 
pen  was  companion  to  his  brush  in  the  support  of  home. 
In  1813  she  published  a  story  for  young  readers,  called 
"  The  Son  of  a  Genius,"  that  was  very  widely  popular. 
Afterwards  came  novels  and  tales,  including  a  character- 
istic series  of  stories  in  one  volume  designed  for  the  pleas- 
ure of  young  girls,  who  were  also  to  draw  from  them  some 
aid  to  a  wholesome  moral  training.  They  were  often 
named  after  the  qualities  they  recommended,  "  Decision," 
"  Patience,"  "  Fortitude,"  "  Energy."  More  elaborate 
novels  had  been  written  by  Mrs.  Opie,  also  a  painter's 
wife  with  the  same  openly  didactic  purpose,  "Temper" 
was  one  of  them  published  in  1812;  Mary  Brunton  had 
published  "  Self  Control,"  in  1811,  and  followed  with 
"Discipline,"  in  1814  ;  in  1823  "Lying  in  all  its  Branches" 
was  another  of  Mrs.  Opie's  books,  and  in  1828  there  was 
"  Detraction  displayed."  Mrs.  Opie  was  only  a  year  older 
than  Mrs.  Hofland,  and  outlived  her,  for  she  died  in  1853, 
but  she  did  not  continue  to  write  after  1837.  Jane  Porter, 
who,  with  her  sister  Anna  Maria,  had  been  active  and 
popular  as  novelist  in  the  early  years  of  the  century,  also 
survived  until  1850,  but  she  did  not  write  under  Victoria. 
Even  Harriet  Lee,  who  was  born  in  1756,  and  with  her 
sister  Sophia  produced  popular  short  stories,  as  "  Canter- 
bury Tales,"  between  the  year  1797  and  1805,  was  living, 
though  not  writing,  under  Victoria,  and  died  at  the  age 
of  95  in  1851.  Mrs.  Hemans  had  died  in  1835,  closing  a 
sad  life  at  the  age  of  forty-one.    Her  Poetical  Remains  were 


158  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

published  in  1836  with  a  short  memoir.  Two  volumes  of 
Memorials  of  her  were  also  published  in  the  same  year 
by  Mr.  H.  F.  Chorley.  The  strain  of  sentiment  in  Mrs. 
Hemans's  verse  was  associated  with  domestic  feeling ;  the 
sad  undertone  was  a  real  note  of  life  in  her.  In  Lsetitia 
Elizabeth  Landon,  admired  by  readers  of  Keepsakes  and 
Poetical  Albums  as  L.  E.  L.,  the  sentiment  was  more  con- 
ventional, though  harmless  and  graceful  of  its  kind.  In 
1821,  when  she  was  but  a  girl  of  nineteen,  and  Byron  was 
still  living,  she  published  the  "  Fate  of  Adelaide,"  and  from 
that  time  her  occasional  verses  in  Magazines  and  Annuals 
were  supported  by  occasional  books  of  verse,  "  the  Impro- 
visatrice  "  in  1824,  the  year  of  Byron's  death,  "the  Trou- 
badour "  in  1825,  "  the  Venetian  Bracelet "  in  1829,  each 
with  a  little  following  of  "other  Poems,"  and  the  "Lay 
of  the  Peacock"  in  1835.  Miss  Landon  produced  three 
Novels  in  the  reign  of  William  IV.,  and  in  1837  published 
"  Traits  and  Trials  of  Early  Life."  Her  mind  was  acquiring 
health  and  strength  when  she  married,  in  June  1838,  the 
Governor  of  Cape  Coast  Castle,  Mr.  George  Maclean.  She 
went  out  with  her  husband  to  Cape  Coast  Castle  and  died 
there  within  four  months  of  her  wedding  day. 

A  tendency  to  artificial  sentiment  was  certainly  not  the 
fault  of  Mrs.  Frances  Trollope  as  a  novelist.  There  was 
a  practical  heartiness  in  her  work  that  gave  pleasure  to 
the  readers  of  her  own  generation,  and  her  name  lives 
for  the  next  generation  of  readers  also  in  two  sons  who 
maintain  its  credit.  Frances  was  the  wife  of  Thomas 
Adolphus  Trollope,  a  barrister,  to  whom  she  was  married 
at  the  age  of  nineteen,  and  by  whom  she  was  left  widow 
at  the  age  of  thirty-five,  with  a  family  to  support.  Her 
son  Thomas  Adolphus  was  then  fifteen  years  old  and  her 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  159 

i 

son  Anthony  ten.  She  sent  both  sons  to  Winchester 
School,  the  elder  also  to  Oxford,  and  the  younger  also  to 
Harrow.  In  1829  she  went  to  America,  staid  three 
years,  and  published  in  1832  her  experience  of  the  "  Do- 
mestic Life  of  the  Americans,"  to  the  great  discontent 
of  those  whose  manners  she  described.  Then  followed 
light  and  cheerful  records  of  Travel  in  Belgium  and 
Western  Germany  and  a  book  on  "  Paris  and  the  Paris- 
ians," before  Mrs.  Trollope  began  novel  writing,  in  1837, 
with  "Jonathan  Jefferson  Whitlaw,"  followed  promptly 
by  "  the  Vicar  of  Wrexhill."  In  1838  Mrs.  Trollope  in 
"  the  Widow  Barnaby "  produced  a  picture  of  a  vulgar 
woman  on  her  travels,  drawn  with  a  rough  good  humour 
that  pleased  many  readers.  Following  the  lead  of  Charles 
Dickens,  who,  by  his  Oliver  Twist,  had,  in  1838,  quick- 
ened attention  to  the  working  of  the  Poor  Laws,  Mrs. 
Trollope  published  in  1839,  in  monthly  parts,  a  novel 
upon  life  in  the  Factory,  "Michael  Armstrong,  the  Fac- 
tory Boy ; "  she  also  continued  the  adventures  of  her 
Widow  Barnaby  in  "  the  Widow  Married,"  and  published 
a  book  on  "  a  Visit  to  Italy."  Another  novel,  "  Jessie 
Phillips  "  followed,  and,  in  1843,  "  the  Barnabys  in  Amer- 
ica." From  this  time  until  1856  Mrs.  Trollope's  novels 
appeared  in  rapid  succession  with  an  occasional  light  book 
founded  on  travel.  Sometimes,  as  in  "the  Robertses  on 
their  Travels "  (1846)  travel  and  fiction  were  united  in 
one  work.  Her  last  novel,  "  Gertrude,"  appeared  in  the 
year  1855.  In  that  year  her  son  Anthony  Trollope  pub- 
lished his  first  novel,  "  the  Warden,"  which  obtained 
immediate  and  permanent  reputation.  In  the  following 
year  Mrs.  Trollope  published  her  last  book,  "Paris  and 
London,"  and  her  elder  son,  Thomas  Adolphus  Trollope, 


160  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

published  his  first  book,  "the  Girlhood  of  Catherine  de' 
Medici."  Then  the  brave,  hardworking  mother,  who  by 
her  skill  in  furnishing  wholesome  entertainment  to  the 
public  had  secured  all  aids  of  liberal  training  for  her 
children,  and  achieved  her  best  success  in  their  successes, 
put  her  pen  aside.  Its  work  was  done.  Mrs.  Trollope 
spent  her  last  years  in  Florence  and  died  in  October 
1863. 

Mary  Howitt  and  Anna  Maria  Hall  had  skill  as  writers 
of  healthy  stories  for  the  young ;  so  had  Miss  Martineau, 
although  her  energies  went  out  over  a  wider  field  of 
labour.  Mrs.  Howitt  and  Mrs.  S.  C.  Hall  had  also  the 
happiness  of  long  lives  spent  in  fellowship  of  labour  with 
their  husbands.  William  and  Mary  Howitt  made,  as  far 
as  possible,  their  labours  one.  They  were  both  members 
of  the  Society  of  Friends,  he  born  at  Heanor  in  Derby- 
shire in  1795,  she,  as  Mary  Botham,  at  Uttoxeter  in  1804. 
They  married  in  1823,  and  published  in  that  year  "  The 
Forest  Minstrel"  with  their  names  joined  on  the  title- 
page.  In  1827  they  produced  another  joint-work,  "The 
Desolation  of  Eyam  and  other  Poems."  It  was  after  the 
accession  of  Victoria  that  Mary  Howitt  applied  the  sense 
of  poetry  that  was  stronger  in  her  than  in  her  husband, 
to  the  skilful  invention  of  story  books  for  the  young, 
beginning  with  "Strive  and  Thrive"  in  1839.  The  titles 
of  the  next  tales  will  suggest  their  spirit:  "Hope  on, 
Hope  ever;  "  "  Sowing  and  Reaping ;  "  "  Little  Coin  much 
Care."  William  Howitt  had  published  in  1833  a  "  His- 
tory of  Priestcraft,"  and  in  1837  "the  Rural  Life  of  Eng- 
land." They  went  to  live  for  a  time  at  Heidelberg  in 
1841.  The  result  was  that  William  Howitt  published  a 
book  on  "  Student  Life  in  Germany,"  with  translations 


IN   THE  IiEIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  161 

of  German  students'  songs,  and  Mrs.  Howitt,  who  im- 
proved the  time  by  also  learning  Swedish,  became  a  most 
graceful  and  pleasant  translator  into  English  of  the  novels 
of  Fredrika  Bremer.  Husband  and  wife  worked  together 
on  an  account  of  Scandinavian  Literature,  and  in  1862  a 
book  describing  "  the  Ruined  Abbe}-s  and  Castles  of  Eng- 
land" was  by  them  both.  William  Howitt  laboured 
steadily  as  man  of  letters  for  the  wellbeing  of  the  people. 
In  1846  he  was  connected  with  a  "  People's  Journal." 
He  turned  to  useful  account  in  books  two  years  experi- 
ence in  Australia,  whither  he  went  in  1852  and  whence 
he  returned  in  1854.  He  wrote  an  "Illustrated  History 
of  England "  in  six  volumes,  completed  in  1861.  The 
eldest  daughter  of  William  and  Mary  Howitt,  trained  as 
an  artist,  is  known  also  as  author  of  a  pleasant  book  pub- 
lished in  1853,  "the  Art-Student  in  Munich."  William 
Howitt  died  in  March  1879. 

Anna  Maria  Fielding,  of  Wexford,  born  in  1804,  was 
married  at  the  age  of  twenty  to  Samuel  Carter  Hall,  a 
son  of  Colonel  Robert  Hall  of  Topsham,  Devon.  He 
was  three  years  older  than  his  wife,  and  was  then  already 
a  man  of  letters.  He  reported  for  a  newspaper ;  in  the 
year  after  his  marriage  he  edited  an  annual.  It  was  he 
who  succeeded  Campbell  in  1830  as  editor  of  "the  New 
Monthly,"  and  two  years  after  the  beginning  of  the  reign 
of  Victoria  he  founded,  in  1839,  "  the  Art  Journal,"  which 
not  only  diffused  information  and  criticism  upon  all  mat- 
ters that  concerned  the  advance  of  the  Fine  Arts  as  a 
means  of  culture,  but  by  giving  every  month  steel-plate 
engravings  from  good  pictures  and  statues,  together  with 
many  woodcut  illustrations,  brought  the  arts  themselves 
into  the  home.      Mrs.  Hall  began  her  career  as  a  writer 


162  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

in  1828  with  "  Sketches  of  Irish  Character."  These  were 
followed  by  novels,  short  tales,  "  Stories  of  the  Irish  Peas- 
antry,"  which  first  appeared  in  "  Chambers's  Edinburgh 
Journal,"  and  stories  for  children,  besides  books  written 
in  fellowship  with  her  husband.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hall,  who 
lived  to  celebrate  their  golden  wedding-day,  are  said  to 
have  written  three  hundred  and  fort}r  volumes.  What- 
ever the  number  may  be,  health  is  in  them  all.  And  here 
also  the  finer  grace  of  invention  and  expression  is  in  the 
wife's  share  of  the  work. 

A  third  pair  of  workers  who  were  active  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  reign,  and  who  passed  on  to  old  age  happy  in 
their  fellowship  of  work,  were  Charles  and  Mary  Cowden 
Clarke.  Mary  Novello,  eldest  daughter  of  Vincent  No- 
vello,  and  sister  to  the  famous  singer  Clara  Novello,  was 
born  in  1809.  She  was  married  at  the  age  of  nineteen  to 
Charles  Cowden  Clarke,  who  had  known  Keats  as  a  boy 
in  his  father's  school  at  Enfield.  He  shared  her  love  for 
the  poets,  above  all  for  Shakespeare.  In  1845  Mrs.  Cow- 
den Clarke  published  "  A  Concordance  to  Shakespeare," 
which  remained  for  many  years  without  a  rival,  and  has 
at  last  been  rivalled  only  in  Germany  by  the  Shakespeare 
Lexicon  of  Dr.  Alexander  Schmidt.  Mrs.  Cowden  Clarke 
joined  her  husband  in  producing  an  edition  of  the  Works 
of  Shakespeare.  She  has  written  also  many  poems  and 
tales.  In  March  1877,  after  some  years  of  residence 
together  at  Genoa,  she  was  parted  from  the  companion  of 
all  her  labour,  who  then  died  at  the  age  of  ninety.  But 
still  active,  Mrs.  Cowden  Clarke,  even  in  1881  is  dating 
from  her  home  in  Genoa  a  book  of  verses,  "  Honey  from 
the  Weed,"  a  very  human  book  whatever  its  technical 
faults,  pathetic  with  memories,  womanly  and  true. 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  163 

Among  foremost  representatives  of  English  thought 
under  Victoria  we  still  have  example  of  this  happy  union 
of  the  intellectual  with  the  domestic  life.  The  best  Eng- 
lish poetess  of  her  own  or  any  time  became  the  wife  of 
one  of  the  best  English  poets,  when  Elizabeth  Barrett 
married  Robert  Browning.  Miss  Barrett  was  born  in 
Herefordshire  in  1809,  the  daughter  of  an  English  country 
gentleman  whose  kindly  encouragement  of  her  genius  is 
recorded  in  her  earliest  verses.  The  impulse  to  write  was 
strong  in  her  youth,  and  at  the  age  of  seventeen  she  pub- 
lished, in  1826,  "an  Essay  on  Mind  and  other  Poems." 
Her  friend  Miss  Milford  described  her  as  "a  slight  delicate 
figure  with  a  shower  of  dark  curls  falling  on  each  side  of 
a  most  expressive  face,  large  tender  eyes,  richly  fringed 
by  dark  eyelashes,  and  a  smile  like  a  sunbeam."  In  1833 
Miss  Barrett  published  other  poems  together  with  a  trans- 
lation of  the  Prometheus  Bound  of  JEschylus,  which  indi- 
cated the  extent  to  which  she  had  been  refining  her  mind 
by  Greek  studies.  In  her  as  in  other  writers  of  our  clay 
the  effect  of  fresher  life  in  literature  shows  itself  by  happy 
change  from  a  dead  worship  of  Vergil  and  Horace,  that 
came  in  with  the  French  critical  influence,  to  a  living 
sympathy  with  the  genius  of  ancient  Greece  in  all  its 
forms.  Poets  who  feel  most  deeply  the  spirit  of  their  time 
find  their  way  in  through  beauty  of  external  form  to  the 
whole  soul  that  was  in  the  utterance  of  the  Greek  Poets, 
and  of  Plato  who  was  poet  too.  Not  seldom  also  from 
poets  of  less  mark,  who  connect  only  a  few  surface  emo- 
tions with  expression  of  the  outward  sense  of  beauty, 
English  comes  with  a  touch  refined  by  contact  with  the 
Greeks.  Miss  Barrett  felt  the  whole  charm  of  the  imagina- 
tive literature  of  the  Greeks,  and  read  also  the  works  of 


164  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

the  Greek  fathers  of  the  Church.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  of  Victoria,  there  were  serious  signs  of  consumption, 
for  which  she  was  sent  to  Torquay.  A  year  or  two  later, 
a  brother  was  drowned  by  the  upsetting  of  a  boat  within 
her  sight,  close  to  the  shore.  She  was  removed  by  easy 
stages  to  London,  where  she  still  studied  assiduously  and 
recovered  health.  In  1840  Miss  Barrett  published  "  the 
Seraphim  and  other  Poems,"  and  in  1844  there  was  a 
collected  edition  of  her  Poems  in  five  volumes.  Robert 
Browning  had  then  been  publishing  plays  and  lyrics  in 
occasional  cheap  shilling  parts  under  the  general  title  of 
"Bells  and  Pomegranates."  A  little  piece  by  Miss  Barrett 
in  which  she  expressed  her  admiration  of  Mr.  Browning's 
poetry  by  comparing  it  to  the  Pomegranate  fruit,  began  a 
friendship  that  led,  in  1846,  to  marriage.  It  is,  therefore, 
as  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  that  Miss  Barrett  lives  in 
English  Literature. 

Caroline  Elizabeth  Norton,  whose  maiden  name  was 
Sheridan,  was  granddaughter  of  Richard  Brinsley  Sheri- 
dan, the  author  of  the  School  for  Scandal.  She  was  born 
in  1808.  Her  marriage  at  the  age  of  twenty  with  the 
Hon.  George  C.  Norton,  brother  of  Lord  Grantley,  was 
not  happy,  and  was  followed  after  sometime  by  a  separa- 
tion. With  quick  wit  as  a  family  birthright,  and  warm 
feeling,  she  wrote  in  annuals  and  published  poems ;  pro- 
duced in  1829  "  the  Sorrows  of  Rosalie  ;  "  in  1830  «  the 
Undying  One  "  on  the  subject  of  the  Wandering  Jew ;  in 
1845  "  the  Child  of  the  Islands."  She  showed  interest  in 
several  forms  of  political  and  social  reform.  Her  novels 
were  "  Stuart  of  Dunleath"  in  1851,  "Lost  and  Saved"  in 
1863,  and  "  Old  Sir  Douglas "  in  1868.  Her  best  poem 
was  "  the  Lady  of  La  Garaye  "  published  in  1862. 


IN   TIIE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  165 

Harriett  Martineau,  the  sixth  of  eight  children,  was 
born  at  Norwich  in  June  1802.  She  was  an  elder  sister 
of  James  Martineau,  who  was  born  in  April  1805,  and  who 
lias  taken  an  important  place  among  leaders  of  thought 
under  Victoria.  The  founder  of  the  family  in  England 
was  driven  from  France  by  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  and  became  a  surgeon  at  Norwich.  From  him 
the  practice  of  medicine  was  handed  down  as  a  family 
profession  to  Miss  Martineau's  uncle,  who  was  eminent  as 
a  provincial  surgeon.  Miss  Martineau's  bent  for  literature 
showed  itself  early.  Before  she  was  twenty,  she  published 
a  book  of  "Devotional  Exercises  for  the  Young,"  and 
soon  became  well  known  as  a  writer  of  tales.  In  1832 
she  began  to  aid  great  social  movements  of  the  time  by 
endeavours  to  show  political  principles  in  action  through 
a  series  of  short  stories.  Her  "  Illustrations  of  Political 
Economy  "  written  upon  this  plan,  extended  through  eigh- 
teen small  and  cheap  volumes.  In  1833  she  illustrated  in 
like  manner  "Poor  Laws  and  Paupers,"  and  in  1834 
"Illustration  of  Taxation"  followed. 


166  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


CHAPTER  VII. 

OF  THOSE  BY  WHOM  CHEAP  LITERATURE  "WAS  MADE  USE- 
FUL ;  AND  OF  THE  EARLIER  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  BABING- 
TON   MACAULAY. 

Deferring  what  has  to  be  said  of  Miss  Martineau's 
work  in  the  reign  of  Victoria,  we  turn  now  to  some  who 
were  fellow-workers  with  her  in  her  efforts  to  spread 
knowledge  among  the  people.  Such  efforts  acquired  fresh 
energy  at  the  time  when  there  was,  by  the  Reform  Bill, 
an  extension  of  the  rights  of  citizenship. 

Charles  Knight  was  born  at  Windsor  in  1791.  His 
mother  died  before  he  was  two  years  old.  His  father, 
also  a  Charles  Knight,  was  a  bookseller  and  printer.  He 
had  published  for  the  Eton  boys  in  1786-7  an  Eton  maga- 
zine, "  the  Microcosm "  to  which  George  Canning  and 
others  were  contributors. 

As  a  boy  Charles  Knight  read  much ;  at  twelve  he  was 
sent  for  two  years  to  a  school  at  Ealing ;  and  at  fourteen 
he  was  bound  apprentice  to  his  father.  For  the  next 
three  years  he  was  at  his  case,  learning  to  print.  His 
father  sold  second  hand  books,  and  young  Charles  Knight, 
when  he  was  not  printing,  made  catalogues.  He  was 
about  seventeen  when  he  made  a  catalogue  of  the  books 
of  a  clergyman  who  was  selling  his  library  before  going  to 
India.  Among  the  books  was  a  very  defective  copy  of 
the  first  folio  of  Shakespeare,  and  young  Charles  Knight's 


IN  TIIE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  167 

employer  had  in  those  days  no  reason  to  be  conscious  of 
extravagant  generosity  when  he  said  of  his  first  folio 
"Young  man,  I  give  you  that  imperfect  copy  of  Shake- 
speare for  yourself."  From  this  gift  Charles  Knight  dated 
his  enthusiasm  for  Shakespeare.  He  supplied  the  missing 
pages  of  the  volume,  by  earing  fly  leaves  out  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  folios  in  his  father's  shop  and  printing  on 
them  with  old  type  that  happened  to  be  in  his  father's 
printing  office  and  was  exactly  like  the  type  of  the  1623 
folio  of  Shakespeare.  This  kind  of  work  was  his  first 
training  to  close  observation  of  the  differences  between 
earlier  and  later  texts.  In  1808  John  and  Leigh  Hunt 
had  set  up  "the  Examiner"  newspaper,  which  blended 
good  literature  in  itself  and  the  appreciation  of  it  in 
others  with  a  keen  interest  in  political  and  social  prog- 
ress. Charles  Knight  was  among  the  first  admirers  of 
"  the  Examiner."  In  1812  he  had  for  two  months  a  little 
half  amateur  experience  as  a  reporter  in  London.  This 
was  designed  as  preparation  for  a  venture  to  which  he 
had  persuaded  his  father.  They  were  to  produce  out  of 
their  Windsor  printing  office  an  "Eton  and  Windsor 
Express,"  of  which  No.  1  appeared  on  the  1st  of  August 
1812.  Charles  Knight's  account  of  this  enterprise  illus- 
trates the  difficulty  of  producing  a  provincial  newspaper, 
when  it  was  burdened  with  a  fourpenny  stamp  duty  upon 
every  copy,  a  duty  of  three  shillings,  raised  afterwards  to 
three  and  sixpence,  upon  every  advertisement,  and  when 
the  duty  upon  the  paper  used  for  printing  was  threepence 
a  pound.  The  price  of  a  newspaper  was  then  usually 
sevenpence,  and  there  were  not  more  than  a  hundred 
country  newspapers  in  all  England.  They  could  not 
easily  get  copies  of  the  London  papers  in  time  for  the 


1G8  OF  ENGLISH  LITEBATURE 

prompt  reproduction  of  important  news.  The  chief  Lon- 
don daily  journals  had  expresses  to  bring  news  from  the 
outports.  One  or  two,  especially  "the  Times,"  had  pri- 
vate packet  boats  to  meet  homeward  bound  ships,  and 
speed  home  before  them  with  the  news  they  brought. 
But  foreign  news  that  came  after  midnight,  or  a  late 
sitting  of  Parliament,  would  sometimes  make  it  impossible 
to  get  a  London  paper  out  till  noon.  The  largest  number 
of  copies  then  printed  by  a  London  daily  paper  did  not 
exceed  four  thousand.  "  The  Times  "  first  appeared  on 
the  13th  of  January  1785,  as  "  the  Daily  Universal  Regis- 
ter." On  the  1st  of  January  1788  its  name  was  changed 
to  "the  Times."  In  1814  it  made  the  first  attempt  at 
printing  by  machinery.  The  compositors  who  had  dreaded 
what  was  coming,  and  were  preparing  to  protect  what 
they  supposed  to  be  their  interests,  were  waiting  for 
foreign  news  when  they  were  told  by  the  manager,  John 
Walter,  son  of  the  John  Walter  by  whom  the  paper  had 
been  founded,  that  the  morning's  paper  had  been  printed 
already  by  steam.  The  men  were  warned  that  if  they 
attempted  violence,  there  was  force  at  hand  to  repress  it ; 
if  they  were  quiet,  those  men  who  were  no  longer  wanted 
would  have  their  wages  paid  until  they  found  other  em- 
ployment. It  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  one  result  of 
this  development  of  the  printing  press  has  been  to  open 
new  fields  of  employment  and  enlarge  the  old  fields,  add- 
ing greatly  to  the  earning  power  of  the  people.  The 
stamp  duty  on  newspapers  was  1\d.  in  1814,  and  the 
advertisement  duty  3d.  In  1815  the  stamp  duty  was 
raised  to  4d.,  and  the  advertisement  duty  to  3s.  6d.  At 
that  time  the  whole  number  of  newspapers  published  in 
the   United   Kingdom,  was  only  254.     The   stamp   duty 


7JV   TUE  EEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  169 

remained  at  fourpence  until  1836,  when  it  was  reduced  to 
a  penny,  and  remained  a  penny  till  its  abolition  in  June 
1855.  The  duty  upon  each  advertisement  remained  3s. 
6d.  until  1833  when  it  was  reduced  to  Is.  6d.  in  England 
and  Is.  in  Ireland.     It  was  wholly  abolished  in  1853. 

We  return  now  to  Charles  Knight,  busy  upon  his 
"  Windsor  and  Eton  Express."  He  printed  a  play  called 
"Arminius,"  in  1813,  and  published  in  1816  a  masque 
"the  Bridal  of  the  Isles"  upon  the  marriage  of  the  Prin- 
cess Charlotte.  In  1817  he  shewed  his  interest  in  Litera- 
ture by  printing  at  Windsor  Fairfax's  version  of  Tasso's 
"  Jerusalem  Delivered,"  preceded  by  short  biographies  of 
Tasso  and  Fairfax.  In  1820  he  began  to  publish  a 
monthly  serial  called  "  the  Plain  Englishman,"  with  the 
direct  purpose  of  opposing  cheap  and  wholesome  litera- 
ture to  the  cheap  and  unwholesome,  which  was  easier  to 
find.  He  and  a  friend  edited  the  Plain  Englishman  for 
three  years,  and  when  it  came  to  an  end,  in  December 
1822,  Charles  Knight  was  in  London  editing  a  paper  called 
"the  Guardian."  In  1823,  having  sold  the  Guardian,  he 
attained  one  object  of  ambition  and  became  a  London 
Publisher.  His  shop  was  in  Pall  Mall  East,  then  a  quar- 
ter being  built  upon,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Royal 
Mews  which  once  occupied  the  site  of  what  is  now  Traf- 
algar Square.  He  had  published  in  1820-21  at  Windsor 
"  the  Etonian  "  for  Winthrop  Mackworth  Praed,  and  other 
Eton  boys  who  followed  in  the  steps  of  J.  Smith,  Frere 
and  Canning.  In  1823  Praed  was  at  Cambridge,  and  sug- 
gested to  his  old  Windsor  publisher,  fresh  in  his  dignity 
as  head  of  a  London  house,  that  he  should  produce  for  the 
larger  public  a  Magazine  written  by  himself  and  other 
young    Cambridge    men.     The    suggestion  was   adopted. 


170  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

The  chief  writers  were  Praed,  who  signed  himself  either 
Peregrine  Courtney  or  Vyvyan  Joyeuse ;  Thomas  B alding- 
ton Macaulay,  who  styled  himself  Tristram  Merton ;  John 
Moultrie,  who  signed  as  Gerard  Montgomery ;  Derwent 
Coleridge ;  Henry  Nelson  Coleridge ;  William  Sidney 
Walker ;  and  Henry  Maiden.  A  magazine  that  brought 
such  men  as  these  together  in  their  youth  belongs  to  liter- 
ary history.  It  was  called  "Knight's  Quarterly  Maga- 
zine," the  first  number  appeared  in  June  1823  and  John 
Wilson, —  Christopher  North  —  described  it  in  his  "Noctes 
Ambrosianse  "  as  a  "  gentlemanly  Miscellany,  got  together 
by  a  clan  of  young  scholars,  who  look  upon  the  world 
with  a  cheerful  eye,  and  all  its  on-goings  with  a  spirit  of 
hopeful  kindness."  We  shall  find  no  pleasanter  occasion 
for  a  glance  at  the  chief  members  of  the  clan. 

Praed  himself,  William  Mack  worth  Praed,  was  the 
youngest  son  of  a  serjeant-at-law,  who  had  a  country  seat 
at  Teignmouth.  He  was  born  in  London  in  1802,  lost  his 
mother  early,  and  after  education  at  a  private  school  fol- 
lowed his  eldest  brother  to  Eton  in  1814.  It  was  just  before 
passing  from  Eton  to  Cambridge  that  Praed  and  his  friend 
Walter  Blunt  edited  "  the  Etonian,"  its  monthly  numbers 
beginning  with  October  1820  and  ending  with  July  1821. 
Praed  commenced  residence  at  Trinity  College  in  October 
1821.  He  obtained  medals  for  Greek  Odes  and  Epigrams 
and  one  for  English  verse ;  was  private  tutor  to  a  noble- 
man's son  at  Eton  from  1825  to  1827  when  he  obtained  a 
Fellowship  at  Trinity,  then  joined  an  Inn  of  Court,  and 
was  called  to  the  bar  in  1829.  In  1830  he  felt  deeply 
the  death  of  an  elder  sister.  He  was  in  Parliament  from 
November  1830  until  after  the  passing  of  the  Reform  Bill, 
and  again  in  1834,  when  he  held  office  as  Secretary  to  the 


IN  THE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  171 

Board  of  Control  under  Sir  Robert  Peel.  In  1835  his 
father  died  and  in  the  same  year  he  married.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  of  Victoria  he  was  failing  rapidly 
in  health  and  in  July  1839  he  died  of  consumption.  In 
1864  his  collected  poems  were  published  in  two  volumes 
and  with  a  Memoir  by  the  Rev.  Derwent  Coleridge.  The 
grace  of  his  light  playfulness  as  a  writer  of  vers  de  societe 
is  sustained  in  these  volumes  by  an  undertone  of  deep  and 
pure  domestic  feeling. 

John  Moultrie  was  born  on  the  last  day  of  the  year 
1799.  His  grandfather  had  been  the  loyal  Governor  of 
Florida  in  the  American  War  of  Independence.  His 
father  was  a  rector  in  Shropshire  who  sent  him  to  Eton 
and  Trinity  College  Cambridge.  At  school  and  College 
he  was  comrade  with  Praecl.  In  1825  he  took  orders,  was 
presented  to  the  rectory  of  Rugby,  and  married  the  sister 
of  a  man,  James  Fergusson,  who  produced  in  1865-67  the 
most  important  History  of  Architecture  in  our  language. 
John  Moultrie  remained  at  Rugby  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
His  mother  formed  part  of  his  household  until  1867,  when 
she  died  at  the  age  of  ninety-three.  Plis  wife  had  died 
three  years  before.  He  himself  died  at  the  age  of  75  on 
the  day  after  Christmas  day  in  1874. 

William  Sidney  Walker  born  at  Pembroke  in  1795, 
published  part  of  a  poem  on  "  Gustavus  Vasa  "  in  1813 
before  he  had  left  Eton.  He  obtained  a  Fellowship  of 
Trinity,  and  when  the  date  of  that  had  expired  his  life  ' 
was  troubled,  until  his  death  at  the  age  of  51  on  the 
15th  of  October  1846.  In  1852  his  Poetical  Remains  were 
edited  with  a  Memoir  by  his  friend  Moultrie.  In  1854  a 
little  book  by  him  upon  Shakespeare's  Versification  was 
published,  and  in  1860  appeared  three  volumes  of  notes 
by  him  upon  the  Text  of  Shakespeare. 


172  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Derwent  and  Henry  Nelson  Coleridge,  also  among  the 
contributors  to  '  Knight's  Quarterly  Magazine,"  were  son 
and  nephew  of  the  poet.  Derwent,  born  in  1800,  was  at 
St.  John's  College  Cambridge  when  Praed  was  at  Trinity. 
He  entered  the  Church,  was  Principal  of  St.  Mark's  Col- 
lege, Chelsea,  from  1841  to  1864,  and  was  afterwards  rec- 
tor of  Hauwell  and  Prebendary  of  St.  Paul's.  He  edited 
the  Poetical  Remains  of  his  elder  brother  Hartley  in  1851. 
He  also  wrote  the  Memoir  of  Praed  prefixed  to  the  col- 
lection of  his  works. 

The  father  of  Thomas  Babington  Macaulay  was  Zach- 
ary,  one  of  twelve  children  of  the  Rev.  John  Macaulay, 
who  was  during  the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  life  minister  at 
Cardross.  Mr.  Thomas  Babington,  owner  of  Rothley  Tem- 
ple in  Leicestershire,  married  Jean  Macaulay,  another  of 
the  twelve.  Zachary  Macaulay  was  in  his  earlier  life  over- 
seer of  an  estate  in  Jamaica,  where  he  saw  what  was  meant 
by  negro  slavery.  At  twenty-four  he  gave  up  his  position, 
and  was  sent  to  Sierra  Leone  by  the  Company  formed, 
with  Wilberforce  a  member  of  the  Council,  to  oppose  to 
slave  labour  the  work  done  by  a  colony  of  liberated  slaves. 
Zachary  Macaulay,  established  at  Freetown,  became  Gov- 
ernor for  the  Company,  and  worked  against  all  difficulties 
with  a  firmness  and  patience  founded  upon  deep  religious 
faith.  An  attack  of  fever  caused  him  to  return  to  Eng- 
land, where  he  became  engaged  to  a  Bristol  Quakeress, 
Selina  Mills,  who  had  been  a  pupil  and  remained  a  closely 
attached  friend  of  Hannah  More  and  her  sisters.  But  he 
returned  to  Sierra  Leone,  and  did  not  marry  until  he  was 
again  in  England  and  settled  at  home  with  a  salary  of  five 
hundred  a  year  as  Secretary  to  the  Company.  Married 
in  August  1799,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Zachary  Macaulay  took  a 


IN   TUE  HEWN   OF   VICTORIA.  173 

small  house  in  Lambeth  ;  but  when  a  child  was  to  be 
born,  Zachary  Macaulay's  sister  Jean,  Mrs.  Thomas  Bab- 
ington,  invited  her  sister-in-law  to  Rothley  Temple.  So 
it  happened  that  the  child  was  born  at  Rothley  Temple, 
on  the  25th  of  October,  1800,  and  was  named  Thomas 
Babington  Macaulay.  Home  was  for  the  first  two  years 
of  the  child's  life  in  a  house  in  Birchin  Lane,  used  for  the 
officers  of  the  Sierra  Leone  Company.  For  the  rest  of 
the  time  of  his  childhood,  Macaulay's  home  was  at  a  house 
in  High  Street  Clapham.  When  he  was  three  years  old, 
books  became  his  companions.  He  had  a  marvellous  mem- 
ory and  soon  began  to  talk  like  print.  When  he  was 
four  years  old,  the  hostess  condoled  with  him  at  a  house 
where  hot  coffee  had  been  spilt  over  his  legs,  and  he 
replied  "  Thank  you,  madam,  the  agony  is  abated."  At 
seven  years  old  he  took  it  into  his  head  to  fill  a  quire  of 
paper  with  a  Compendium  of  Universal  History.  Scott's 
"  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  "  he  knew  by  heart.  He  had 
picked  it  up  in  a  house  at  which  his  father  made  a  long 
call,  read  eagerly,  and  when  he  went  home  sat  down  on 
his  mother's  bed  and  repeated  as  many  cantos  as  she  liked 
to  hear.  He  knew  also  nearly  the  whole  of  "  Marmion," 
when  he  began  at  eight  years  old  to  imitate  Scott's  verse 
with  a  poem  on  the  Battle  of  Cheviot.  When  he  had 
written  three  or  four  hundred  lines  of  that,  his  fancy 
changed  and  he  began  a  heroic  poem  "  Olaus  the  Great, 
or  the  Conquest  of  Mona."  At  seven  }'ears  old  he  was 
left  for  a  week  with  Hannah  More  and  her  sisters  at 
Barley  Wood,  where,  as  Macaulay  afterwards  said,  "  They 
could  not  make  enough  of  me.  They  taught  me  to  cook; 
and  I  was  to  preach,  and  they  got  people  in  from  the 
fields,  and   I   stood   on  a  chair,  and   preached   sermons. 


174  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

I  might  have  been  indicted  for  holding  a  conventicle." 
The  fluency  of  talk,  and  fluency  in  the  outpourings  of 
verse  and  prose  cleverly  imitative  of  the  books  over  which 
it  was  his  delight  to  hang,  belonged  to  a  frank  self-con- 
fident nature,  that  was  at  the  same  time  good-humoured 
and  playful.  Zachary  Macaulay  joined  a  nephew  in  estab- 
lishing the  firm  of  Macaulay  and  Babington,  which  had  a 
large  business  as  African  merchants.  When  the  eldest  son 
was  thirteen,  there  was  a  family  of  nine  children,  four 
boys  and  five  girls,  in  a  thriving  household.  From  a  Clap- 
ham  school,  Macaulay  was  sent  to  Little  Shelford  near 
Cambridge,  where  he  was  placed,  at  the  age  of  twelve,  as 
one  of  a  dozen  boys  under  an  Evangelical  clergyman  in 
whom  his  father  trusted.  Among  his  school  fellows  next 
year  was  Henry  Maiden.  His  tutor  had  then  removed  to 
another  house  in  Hertfordshire.  The  lifelong  friendship 
between  Macaulay  and  Maiden  who  were  competitors  at 
School  and  College,  was  due,  as  friendship  often  is,  to  like- 
ness in  essentials  with  much  outward  difference.  Henry 
Maiden  became  one  of  the  finest  scholars  of  his  time,  and 
as  Professor  of  Greek  at  University  College  London  from 
1831  until  1876,  only  a  year  before  his  death,  he  exercised 
great  influence  over  two  generations  of  students.  He  was 
among  the  young  writers  of  "  Knight's  Quarterly  Maga- 
zine," but  in  after  years  his  fastidious  taste  restrained  his 
pen.  Macaulay  even  among  school  boys  was  loud  and 
confident  as  a  talker,  and  when  afterwards  he  wrote  books 
had  as  good  an  opinion  of  them  as  the  kindest  of  his 
critics.  A  memory  to  which  everything  seemed  to  stick 
enabled  him  to  pour  out  of  his  mind  at  will  whatever  had 
once  come  into  it,  and  he  took  natural  pleasure  in  the  exer- 
cise of  power.     But  it  was  natural  pleasure.     A  quick  wit 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  175 

went  with  the  quick  memory,  and  Macaulay  was  in  all 
things  so  frank  and  kindly,  that  his  self-confidence  offended 
none.  Henry  Maiden's  quiet  nature  felt,  no  doubt,  the 
charm  of  Macaulay's  boldness,  though  in  him  that  sense 
of  an  unattainable  perfection  which  is  keen  in  minds  of 
finest  temper  was  a  restraining  influence  through  life.  He 
published  nothing  but  a  Lecture  on  "the  Origin  of  Uni- 
versities "  in  1835. 

Macaulay's  memory  was  such  a  gift  as  few  would  wel- 
come. At  thirteen  he  read  two  pieces  of  poor  verse  in 
a  Cambridge  newspaper  while  waiting  at  an  inn,  and 
forty  years  afterwards  he  could  repeat  them  word  for 
word.  In  October  1818  he  went  to  Trinity  College  Cam- 
bridge, sharing  rooms  with  the  eldest  son  of  his  father's 
friend  and  fellow-worker  Henry  Thornton,  member  for 
Lambeth.  At  Cambridge  he  twice  gained  the  Chancel- 
lor's medal  for  English  verse.  In  1821  he  obtained  a 
Craven  University  Scholarship  with  Maiden  and  George 
Long.  In  1822  his  neglect  of  Mathematics  deprived  the 
brilliant  student  of  a  place  in  the  Tripos,  but  he  suc- 
ceeded in  a  competition  for  a  prize  of  ten  pounds  annu- 
ally offered  to  the  Junior  Bachelor  of  Trinity  College 
who  shall  write  the  best  Essay  on  the  Conduct  and  Char- 
acter of  William  the  Third.  This  brings  us  to  the  time 
when,  in  1823,  Macaulay,  twenty-three  years  old,  was 
among  the  contributors  to  Knight's  Quarterly  Magazine. 
In  the  following  year,  1824,  he  and  his  friend  Maiden 
both  obtained  Fellowships  at  Trinity.  When  Macaulay 
went  to  College,  his  father  had  made  a  fortune  in  the 
African  trade ;  before  he  left  College,  his  father  had  lost 
his  fortune.  But  the  eldest  son  brought  cheer  into  the 
new  home  in  Great  Ormond  Street.     He  talked  politics 


176  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

at  breakfast  to  the  delight  of  his  father,  and  with  his 
brothers  and  sisters  of  an  evening  was  full  of  loving  play- 
fulness. 

To  the  first  number  of  "  Knight's  Quarterly  "  Macaulay 
contributed  his  Fragments  of  a  Roman  Tale,  also  a  satire 
upon  the  scheme  of  patronage  embodied  in  the  Royal 
Society  of  Literature  and,  to  please  his  father,  an  article 
on  West  Indian  Slavery.  But  his  father  was  shocked  by 
a  couple  of  amatory  poems  in  the  number.  He  did  not 
know  that  it  was  his  son  himself  who  had  written  of  the 
happiness  of  seeing  a  Rosamond  twine  rose  and  eglantine 
round  the  bower  he  was  to  share  with  her, 

Still  laying  on  my  soul  and  sense  a  new  and  mystic  charm 
At  every  turn  of  thy  fairy  shape  and  of  thy  snowy  arm ; 

but  he  would  not  allow  Thomas  to  write  again  in  a 
Magazine  that  would  admit  such  naughtiness.  The  sec- 
ond number  contained  nothing  alarming,  and  Macaulay 
had  leave  to  resume  his  place  as  a  contributor.  He  sent 
to  the  Magazine  "  Montcontour,"  "  Ivry,"  "  Songs  of  the 
Huguenots,"  "  Songs  of  the  Civil  War,"  "  Scenes  from 
Athenian  Revels,"  an  essay  on  "  the  Athenian  Orators," 
and  a  "  Conversation  between  Mr.  Abraham  Cowley  and 
Mr.  John  Milton  touching  the  great  Civil  War."  The 
two  last  named  pieces  were  in  the  fifth  number,  published 
in  July  182-i.  In  October,  after  the  sixth  number  had 
appeared,  Charles  Knight  went  to  Cambridge  to  compose 
differences  arising  out  of  his  claim  to  control  writers  in 
the  Magazine.  He  found  a  happy  dinner  in  Henry  Mai- 
den's rooms  to  celebrate  the  gaining  of  a  Trinity  Fellow 
ship  by  Maiden  and  Macaulay,  but  the  dispute  proved 
fatal  to  Knight's  Quarterly.  Macaulay  had  work  for 
another  Quarterly  in  prospect. 


IN   TIIE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  177 

Francis  Jeffrey  was  looking  for  young  men  who  could 
bring  new  life  into  the  "Edinburgh  Review."  In  Jan- 
uary 1825  he  wrote  to  a  London  friend,  "  Can  you  not 
lay  your  hands  on  some  clever  young  man  who  would 
write  for  us  ?  The  original  supporters  of  the  work  are 
getting  old,  and  either  too  busy  or  too  stupid,  and  here 
the  young  men  are  mostly  Tories."  Macaulay  went  to 
Cambridge  a  Toiy ;  he  was  almost  turned  into  a  Radical 
by  the  influence  of  one  of  his  Cambridge  friends,  Charles 
Austin  ;  and  he  left  the  University  a  zealous  Whig.  The 
search  for  a  "  clever  young  man  "  who  could  revive  the 
youth  of  "  the  Edinburgh  Review "  had  caused  sugges- 
tions to  be  made  to  him  when  he  was  writing  in  "  Knight's 
Quarterly,"  and  when  that  journal  disappeared  Macaulay 
was  doing  his  best  to  write  a  first  article  with  which 
Francis  Jeffrey  should  be  pleased.  That  was  his  article 
on  "  Milton,"  which  came  out  in  August  1824.  Jeffrey 
had  written  to  him,  in  acknowledging  the  MS.,  "  The 
more  I  think,  the  less  I  can  conceive  where  you  picked 
up  that  style."  The  article  en  Milton  at  once  gave  repu- 
tation to  its  writer.  Macaulay  was  entering  to  the  bar, 
was,  in  fact,  called  in  1826,  and  joined  the  Northern  Cir- 
cuit ;  but  his  essay  on  Milton  pointed  to  another  call. 
The  "  Edinburgh  Review "  drew  from  him  article  after 
article,  and  the  attention  drawn  to  young  Macaulay  by 
his  writing  in  "  the  Edinburgh "  caused  Lord  Lyndhurst 
to  make  him  in  1828  a  Commissioner  of  Bankruptcy. 
With  about  £800  a  year  from  his  fellowship,  and  £200 
from  his  writing  for  "the  Edinburgh,"  this  office  made 
Macaulay's  income  about  £900  a  year  when  he  was 
twenty-eight  }-ears  old.  He  felt  —  and  he  was  —  able  to 
succeed  either  in  Literature  or  in  Politics.     At  that  time 


178  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  his  life  his  ambition  was  towards  a  political  career,  and 
Lord  Lansdowne  early  in  1830  put  him  into  parliament 
as  member  for  what  was  then  his  Lordship's  pocket 
borough  of  Calne.  The  parliament  Macaulay  joined  was 
that  by  which  the  Reform  Bill  was  to  be  passed,  and  the 
success  of  his  first  speech  on  behalf  of  it  strengthened 
his  faith  that  he  might  abandon  law  for  politics.  He 
voted  for  reforms  in  the  Bankruptcy  Court  which  swept 
away  his  own  small  office  of  Commissioner,  and  left  him 
with  only  his  earnings  from  the  Review  and  the  income 
from  his  fellowship,  which  then  had  but  a  few  months  to 
run.  In  the  autumn  of  1830  a  sister  died,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1831  his  mother.  His  home  feeling  was  ex- 
pressed in  the  close  of  a  home  letter:  "Love  to  all,  —  to 
all  who  are  left  me  to  love.  We  must  love  each  other 
better."  On  one  day  in  January  1832  a  sister  records 
"  Yesterday  Tom  dined  with  us,  and  stayed  late.  He 
talked  almost  uninterruptedly  for  six  hours."  On  a  day 
in  the  following  February  he  was  with  his  sisters  "  in 
high  boyish  spirits."  Lord  Lansdowne  had  been  asking 
him  about  his  disposition  towards  taking  office.  In  the 
"  Edinburgh  Review  "  he  felt  with  impatience  the  superior 
influence  of  Brougham,  then  the  most  popular  man  in 
England.  He  felt  that  Brougham  disliked  and  avoided 
him.     Macaulay,  therefore,  disliked  Brougham. 

After  the  passing  of  the  Reform  Bill,  Macaulay  was 
appointed  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Control  which  rep- 
resented the  voice  of  the  Crown  in  the  affairs  of  the  East 
India  Company.  In  January  1833  he  entered  the  new 
parliament  as  member  for  Leeds.  In  December  he  was 
appointed  to  the  seat  on  the  Supreme  Council  of  India 
which  was  appointed  to  be  held  by  one  who  was  not  a 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  179 

servant  of  the  Company.  The  salary  was  ten  thousand  a 
year.  Half  of  this  he  could  save,  and  after  a  few  years  of 
absence  he  might  hope  to  return  with  the  independence 
necessary  to  political  success.  The  immediate  prospect  of 
political  success  at  home  was  gloomy,  and  it  was  impos- 
sible for  him  to  earn  a  living  by  his  pen  while  he  took 
active  part  in  politics.  His  wellbeing  was  also  the  well- 
being  of  his  father  and  sisters.  In  February  1834,  with 
his  sister  named  after  Hannah  More  as  his  companion, 
Macaulay  sailed  for  India.  There  Hannah  was  engaged  by 
the  end  of  the  year  to  marry  Mr.  Charles  Edward  Trevel- 
yan  an  energetic  reformer  whom  Lord  William  Bentinck 
had  made  Undersecretary  for  Foreign  Affairs.  Macaulay 
said  of  him  "  He  has  no  small  talk.  His  mind  is  full  of 
schemes  of  moral  and  political  improvement,  and  his  zeal 
boils  over  in  his  talk.  His  topics,  even  in  courtship,  are 
steam  navigation,  the  education  of  the  natives,  the  equal- 
ization of  the  sugar  duties,  the  substitution  of  the  Roman 
for  the  Arabic  alphabet  in  the  oriental  languages." 

Charles  Edward  Trevelyan,  son  of  an  Archdeacon  of 
Taunton,  was  born  in  1807  and  educated  at  the  Charter- 
house and  Haileybury.  In  1848  he  was  made  knight  com- 
mander of  the  Bath  because  of  his  exertions  for  relief  of 
Ireland  under  famine.  After  zealous  service  in  posts 
of  high  trust  that  contributed  much  to  the  wellbeing  of 
India,  he  was  created  a  baronet  in  1874.  The  son  of  Sir 
Charles  Trevelyan,  George  Otto  Trevelyan,  born  in  1838, 
like  his  father  active  for  reform  and  now  M.P.  for  Hawick, 
is  the  nephew  of  Macaulay  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for 
a  life  of  his  uncle  first  published  in  1876. 

After  the  marriage  of  his  sister  Hannah  More  with  Mr. 
Trevelyan,  news  from  home  of  the  death  of  another  sister 


180  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

filled  Macaulay  with  a  grief  that  caused  him  to  work  with 
fresh  intensity.  He  became  in  March  1835  President  of 
the  Committee  of  Public  Instruction,  and  then  President 
of  a  Law  Commission  to  which  he  proposed  the  framing 
of  a  Criminal  Code  for  the  whole  Indian  Empire.  In  this 
work  he  took  the  chief  labour,  while  his  work  in  behalf  of 
education  and  of  the  reform  of  Indian  Criminal  Law  was 
voluntary  and  unpaid.  He  might  have  lived  an  easy  half 
idle  official  life ;  but  he  bent  all  his  energies  to  useful 
labour,  encouraged  doubtless  by  the  brother-in-law  who 
had  been  added  to  his  Indian  household,  since  the  sister 
who  went  out  to  be  his  companion  could  not  leave  him  to 
live  alone.  Still  also  there  was  the  large  habit  of  reading. 
He  read  through,  in  one  year  in  India,  Sophocles  twice, 
iEschylus  twice,  Euripides  once,  almost  all  Plato,  all 
Herodotus  and  Thucydides,  almost  all  Xenophon,  much 
Aristotle,  Plautus  twice,  Terence  twice,  Lucretius  twice, 
almost  all  Cicero,  and  many  authors  more  ;  the  pencil 
marks  in  the  books  implying  that  he  read  with  care.  He 
was  also  sending  articles  home  to  Macvey  Napier  for  "  the 
Edinburgh,"  among  them  the  article  on  Bacon,  in  1837, 
which  filled  104  pages  of  the  Review.  That  was  Macau- 
lay's  position,  thirty-seven  years  old,  and  still  in  India, 
when  the  reign  of  Victoria  began. 

We  may  return  now  to  the  publisher  of  the  Quarterly 
Magazine  in  which  Macaulay  began  his  career  as  a  writer. 
In  1825  Charles  Knight  published  Milton's  Latin  Treatise 
on  Christian  Doctrine  which  had  been  discovered  behind 
a  press  in  the  State  Paper  Office,  and  was  edited  by  the 
Librarian  and  Historiographer  to  George  IV.,  the  Rev. 
Charles  Richard  Sumner.  He  visited  Paris  in  autumn, 
came  home  and  planned  a  "  National  Library."     At  this 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTOEIA.  181 

time  Archibald  Constable,  who  had  published  the  first 
number  of  "  the  Edinburgh  Review,"  was  at  the  close  of 
his  career,  and  was  leading  the  way  in  the  production  of 
new  and  good  literature  at  a  cheap  price,  with  his  series 
known  as  "  Constable's  Miscellany."  In  1826  ruin  came 
upon  many  publishing  houses.  House  after  house  fell, 
the  fall  of  one  involving  fall  of  others.  Constable  and 
Ballantyne  were  among  the  ruined,  and  their  fall  involved 
the  complete  ruin  of  Sir  Walter  Scott  who  was  a  sleeping 
partner  with  the  Ballantynes.  Scott,  involved  in  £130,000 
of  debt,  refused  to  be  cleared  by  bankruptcy  and  killed 
himself  in  the  grand  struggle  to  pay  all.  He  did  pay  all ; 
for  what  was  left  unpaid  at  his  death,  in  1832,  was  cleared 
by  the  profits  of  the  author's  edition  of  his  works  in  48 
volumes,  with  new  prefaces  and  notes,  which  he  devised 
and  prepared.  Charles  Knight's  publishing  house  could 
not  stand  the  strain. 

But  in  the  autumn  of  that  year  1826  Henry  Brougham, 
not  yet  Lord  Brougham,  was  organizing  the  "  Society  for 
the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge."  Charles  Knight's 
plan  of  a  National  Library  was  brought  to  his  notice  by 
Matthew  Davenport  Hill.  The  young  publisher  was  then 
living  at  Brompton,  with  a  wife  and  four  little  girls ;  his 
stock  in  trade  had  been  sold  off  by  private  arrangement. 
He  was  thirty-six  years  old,  and  had  the  world  to  begin 
again.  He  tried  a  little  journalism  under  James  Silk 
Buckingham. 

James  Silk  Buckingham  from  sailor  had  turned  journal- 
ist in  India,  where  he  gave  so  much  offence  to  the  East 
India  Company  that  he  was  ordered  to  quit  Calcutta.  He 
came  to  England  with  a  good  grievance,  was  a  fluent 
speaker,  lectured  all  over  England  against  the  Constitu- 


182  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

tion  of  the  East  India  Company,  and  in  so  doing  helped 
to  prepare  the  way  for  abolition  of  its  charter.  He  estab- 
lished in  1824  a  journal,  called  "the  Oriental  Herald," 
and  from  1832  to  1837  represented  Sheffield  in  Parliament. 
He  afterwards  visited  America,  published  travels,  obtained 
a  pension  from  the  East  India  Company,  published  his 
Autobiography  and  died  in  1855.  A  son  of  his,  Leicester 
Stanhope  Buckingham,  who  died  in  middle  life,  became 
a  minor  dramatist  in  London. 

A  little  was  enough  of  journalism  under  James  Silk 
Buckingham.  Charles  Knight  also  edited  a  "  Friendship's 
Offering "  for  1827.  This  was  one  of  a  class  of  "  An- 
nuals "  which  had  been  introduced  into  English  Literature 
in  1822  by  an  enterprising  German,  Rudolf  Ackermann, 
who  had  begun  life  as  a  carriage  draughtsman,  and  then 
settled  in  London  as  a  printseller  and  publisher  of  orna- 
mental books.  His  "  Forget-me-not "  in  1822  was  pub- 
lished as  the  first  of  a  series  of  elegant  giftbooks  for 
Christmas  or  New  Year,  containing  short  tales  and  poems 
by  popular  or  fashionable  writers,  illustrated  by  pictures 
from  good  artists  engraved  on  copper-plates.  The  idea 
was  immediately  caught  up  by  others.  Alaric  Watts 
followed  with  a  "  Literary  Souvenir."  Samuel  Carter 
Hall  started  "  the  Amulet."  Frederic  Mansel  Reynolds 
edited  "the  Keepsake."  And  so  the  fashion  spread,  till 
it  included  "Bijous,"  "Gems,"  "New  Year's  Gifts," 
"  Juvenile  Forget-me-nots,"  "  Juvenile  Keepsakes,"  etc., 
etc.  The  best  of  these  giftbooks  were  produced  with 
great  care  and  at  great  cost.  The  Preface  to  "  the  Keep- 
sake "  for  1829  says  that  eleven  thousand  guineas  had 
been  spent  upon  its  various  departments.  It  contained 
pieces  by  Scott,  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Southey,  Moore, 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  183 

L.  E.  L.,  Lockhart,  Theodore  Hook,  Mrs.  Shelley,  frag- 
ments of  Shelley's  writing,  also  contributions  from  Henry 
Luttrell  and  other  fashionable  writers,  and  steel  or  copper- 
plate engravings  from  pictures  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence, 
Turner,  Landseer,  Westall,  Stothard,  and  half  a  dozen 
more.  These  Annuals  lived  into  the  reign  of  Victoria, 
but  they  were  gradually  superseded  by  luxurious  editions 
of  standard  works,  and  giftbooks  of  many  kinds,  which 
were  lavishly  illustrated  when  a  great  advance  in  the  art 
of  wood  engraving  caused  woodcuts  to  take  the  place  of 
the  steel-plates. 

Charles  Knight  having  edited  a  "Friendship's  Offer- 
ing "  in  1827  found  in  July  of  that  year  work  to  his  mind. 
He  was  then  entrusted  with  the  superintendence  of  the 
publications  of  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful 
Knowledge.  Its  first  treatises,  which  appeared  as  six- 
penny numbers  published  once  a  fortnight  had  been  intro- 
duced by  Brougham  with  "  a  Discourse  on  the  Objects, 
Advantages  and  Pleasures  of  Science."  In  1828  Charles 
Knight  suggested  that  a  rational  Almanac  might  be  pro- 
duced, to  supersede  the  prophetic  and  other  almanacs  that 
were  still  trading  on  the  ignorance  of  the  people.  The 
suggestion  was  not  made  until  the  middle  of  November. 
Brougham  fastened  upon  the  suggestion  with  character- 
istic energ}^.  The  work  was  at  once  begun,  and  the  first 
number  of  "  The  British  Almanac  "  was  published  before 
the  1st  of  January  1829.  Although  its  price  was  half  a 
crown,  ten  thousand  were  sold  in  a  week.  It  was  followed, 
within  a  few  weeks,  by  "  the  Companion  to  the  Almanac," 
a  compact  body  of  information  that  was  to  set  forth  — 
and  still  sets  forth  —  from  year  to  year  the  progress  of 
the  country.     In  1828  Charles  Knight  was  travelling  to 


184  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

organize  Local  Committees  of  the  Society  for  which  he 
worked.  He  was  planning  also  a  "  Library  of  Entertain- 
ing Knowledge."  By  July  1829  he  had  established  him- 
self again  as  a  publisher  in  Pall  Mall  East,  and  started 
his  "  Library  of  Entertaining  Knowledge "  at  the  same 
time  that  John  Murray,  pliant  to  the  new  demand  for 
cheap  literature  that  should  give  real  aid  to  the  progress 
of  thought,  began  the  issue  of  his  "  Family  Library." 
It  was  as  a  part  of  the  large  movement  at  this  time 
towards  a  higher  education  that  the  London  University 
was  opened  in  1828.  Among  its  first  professors  were 
George  Long,  Thomas  Hewitt  Key  and  Augustus  De 
Morgan,  who  all  gave  active  assistance  to  the  work  of  the 
"  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge."  John 
William  Lubbock,  the  banker,  father  of  Sir  John  Lub- 
bock, who  is  now  eminent  among  men  of  science,  was 
skilled  in  Astronomy  and  contributed  to  the  Roj^al  Soci- 
ety valuable  papers  on  the  Tides ;  he  it  was  who  super- 
intended the  astronomical  part  of  the  British  Almanac. 
Charles  Knight,  who  was  throughout  life  writer  as  well 
as  publisher,  contributed  a  book  on  Menageries  to  his 
"  Library  of  Entertaining  Knowledge,"  which  appeared 
in  monthly  half-volumes,  and  Mr.  George  Lillie  Craik 
first  won  public  attention  by  contributing  to  the  same 
series  a  book  entitled  "  the  Pursuit  of  Knowledge  under 
Difficulties." 

George  Lillie  Craik  was  born  in  Fife  in  1799  and  was 
educated  at  St.  Andrews  for  the  Scottish  Church.  But 
the  bent  of  his  mind  was  towards  Literature,  and  at  the 
age  of  twenty-five  he  came  to  London  as  a  writer.  His 
"  Pursuit  of  Knowledge  under  Difficulties  "  was  a  sugges- 
tive   book,  helpful   to   many  by  showing   through   many 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTOBIA.  185 

examples,  clearly  and  genially  set  forth,  how  the  mind  of 
man,  bent  upon  worthy  work,  has  strength  to  make  its 
way  along  the  worst  and  steepest  road  of  life.  They  fail 
who  will  not  venture  boldly  even  upon  a  clear  way  for 
dread  of  an  imagined  lion  round  the  corner.  In  the  spirit 
of  George  Lillie  Craik  another  Scotchman,  Samuel  Smiles, 
born  at  Haddington  in  181G,  trained  first  to  medicine, 
and  employed  afterwards,  till  his  retirement  in  1866,  in 
the  service  of  the  South-Eastern  Railway,  has  written  in 
our  later  day  many  a  good  book.  His  "Life  of  George 
Stephenson,"  in  1856,  "Lives  of  the  Engineers,"  in  1862, 
"Self-Help,"  in  1862,  "Industrial  Biography,"  in  1863, 
"Lives  of  Boulton  and  Watt,"  in  1865,  "Life  of  Robert 
Dick,  Baker,  Geologist  and  Botanist,"  in  1878,  and  other 
books,  seek,  like  the  writings  of  G.  L.  Craik,  to  push  for- 
ward the  great  battle  of  civilization,  and  aid  in  the  work 
of  citizen-building.  Mr.  Smiles  received  from  the  Uni- 
versity of  Edinburgh  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  in 
1878,  an  honour  formerly  conferred  upon  George  Lillie 
Craik,  who  was  appointed  also  in  1849  Professor  of  His- 
tory and  English  Literature  in  Queen's  College,  Belfast. 
He  had  produced  in  1844-5  for  Charles  Knight's  cheap 
volumes  "Sketches  of  the  History  of  Literature  and 
Learning  in  England,"  which  was  the  first  attempt  to 
make  widely  known  among  the  English  people  the  history 
of  their  own  intellectual  life.  This  was  expanded  in  1861 
into  a  valuable  "  History  of  English  Literature  and  of 
the  English  Language,"  of  which  an  abridged  edition  has 
been  and  is  widely  useful  as  an  aid  to  education  of  the 
young. 

In    1881    Charles    Knight    established    a    "  Quarterly 
Journal  of  Education,"  edited   by  George    Long,  which 


186  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

was  continued  until  1836.  In  1832,  the  year  of  the 
Reform  Bill,  there  appeared  on  the  31st  of  March  the  first 
number  of  "  the  Penny  Magazine."  Charles  Knight,  then 
living  at  Hampstead,  was  walking  into  town  one  morning 
with  Matthew  Davenport  Hill,  and  they  were  regretting 
the  large  number  of  unwholesome  penny  journals  that 
degraded  the  minds  of  their  readers.  "  Let  us,"  said  Mr. 
Hill,  "  see  what  something  cheap  and  good  shall  accom- 
plish. Let  us  have  a  penny  magazine."  "And  what 
shall  we  call  it  ? "  asked  Charles  Knight.  "  Call  it  the 
Penny  Magazine."  In  the  middle  of  March  the  sugges- 
tion was  made  to  Brougham  who  was  then  Lord  Chancel- 
lor. At  once  a  Committee  was  called.  The  very  notion 
of  a  weekly  sheet  at  a  penny  seemed  to  some  as  a  touch- 
ing of  pitch.  "It  is  very  awkward,"  said  one  member  of 
Committee.  But  all  difficulty  was  overcome,  and  the  first 
number  of  the  new  magazine  was  out  by  the  end  of  the 
month.  Charles  Knight  was  publisher,  and  took  the  risks 
of  publication.  At  the  end  of  the  year  "the  Penny 
Magazine  "  had  a  sale  of  200,000  copies. 

It  is  a  noticeable  illustration  of  the  movement  of  great 
currents  of  thought  that  the  conditions  of  the  time  in 
1832  which  caused  Charles  Knight  to  set  up  "  the  Penny 
Magazine  "  in  London  had  only  a  few  weeks  before  in  Edin- 
burgh caused  the  brothers  William  and  Robert  Chambers 
to  produce  "Chambers's  Edinburgh  Journal,"  its  price 
being  not  the  penny  with  an  ill  name,  but  three  halfpence. 
The  Penny  Magazine  was  the  more  popular  for  its  use  of 
woodcut  illustrations ;  such  pictures  as  it  gave  from  large 
wood-blocks  occupying  a  whole  page,  were  then  a  new 
feature  in  book  illustration,  for  a  great  development  of 
the   use  of  wood-engraving  dates  from  this  time.      The 


IN   TUE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  187 

success  of  the  Magazine  caused  Charles  Knight  to  begin 
"the  Penny  Cyclopaedia,"  in  which  men  specially  qualified 
were  to  take  the  subscribers  through  the  whole  domain  of 
knowledge,  in  a  series  of  weekly  penny  numbers  forming 
about  eight  volumes.  The  first  number  appeared  on  the 
2nd  of  January  1833.  As  the  work  proceeded,  its  limits 
were  so  much  enlarged  that  at  the  rate  of  issue  first 
designed,  it  would  have  taken  thirty-seven  years  to  finish. 
The  rate  of  issue,  therefore,  was  doubled  in  the  second 
year,  and  the  price  became  two  pence  a  week.  After 
three  years  the  quantity  issued  was  doubled  again,  and 
the  subscription  became  four  pence  a  week.  In  the  year 
of  Her  Majesty's  accession  "  the  Penny  Cyclopaedia  "  was 
still  in  progress,  and  it  was  not  finished  until  1844.  In 
the  first  year  its  sale  was  75,000.  It  fell  at  once  to  55,000, 
when  two  numbers  a  week  were  issued,  and  sank  to  44,000. 
After  the  rate  of  issue  had  been  increased  to  four  numbers 
a  week,  the  sale  steadily  declined  to  20,000  at  the  close 
of  1843.  The  venture  was  at  the  publisher's  risk,  and 
involved  him  in  a  final  loss  of  X 30,000.  In  1850,  when 
there  was  question  of  the  abolition  of  the  paper  duty, 
Charles  Knight  contributed  to  the  discussion  an  account 
of  "  The  Struggles  of  a  Book  against  excessive  Taxation," 
in  which  he  showed  that  he  had  paid  to  the  Excise 
.£16,500  for  paper  duty  on  "the  Penny  Cyclopaedia" 
alone,  and  that  the  further  effect  of  the  tax  upon  the 
price  of  paper,  and  other  considerations,  justified  him  in 
estimating  that  the  whole  £ 30,000  lost  to  him  by  that 
venture  in  aid  of  higher  education  would  have  been  saved 
if  there  had  been  no  Tax  on  Knowledge. 

Charles  Knight  was  more  successful  with  a  handsome 
"  Pictorial  Bible  "  suggested  to  him  by  the  German  Bilder- 


188  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Bibel  for  the  poor.  This  he  began  to  issue  in  parts  at  the 
beginning  of  1836,  and  completed  in  two  years  and  a  half. 
Improvements  in  the  art  of  wood-engraving  enabled  him 
to  reproduce  scriptural  designs  of  the  great  painters, 
scenery  of  the  Holy  Land,  illustrations  of  costume,  zool- 
ogy and  botan3r,  while  Dr.  John  Kitto,  as  editor,  supplied 
excellent  notes.  In  1838  Charles  Knight,  still  seeking  the 
diffusion  of  knowledge,  began  the  monthly  publication  of 
a  "  Pictorial  History  of  England  "  edited  by  George  Lillie 
Craik  and  Charles  Macfarlane.  It  reached  to  the  end  of 
the  reign  of  George  II.  in  four  volumes,  but  Mr.  Macfar- 
lane's  strong  political  feelings  caused  him  to  give  another 
four  volumes  to  the  reign  of  George  III.  The  dispropor- 
tion and  the  want  of  liberal  tone  in  this  part  of  the  work 
greatly  diminished  its  success.  Mr.  Craik  contributed  to 
the  "  Pictorial  History  of  England  "  the  chapters  on  Reli- 
gion, Literature,  and  Commerce  with  some  aid  from  Sir 
Henry  Ellis  and  from  Mr.  Andrew  Bisset.  Mr.  Edward 
Poynter,  father  of  the  Royal  Academician,  wrote  upon 
the  Arts.  Together  with  the  Pictorial  History  of  Eng- 
land there  was  running  also,  edited  as  well  as  published 
by  himself  in  monthly  numbers,  a  Pictorial  Shakespeare, 
during  the  production  of  which  his  zeal  for  the  study  of 
Shakespeare  grew.  Another  of  Charles  Knight's  ventures 
was  a  work  on  "  London  "  in  weekly  numbers.  This  ex- 
tended to  2500  pages,  giving  sketches,  by  different  writers, 
of  London  as  it  was  and  as  it  had  been  still  with  abundant 
woodcut  illustration.  In  1842  the  seven  volumes  of  the 
Pictorial  Shakespeare  were  completed.  Charles  Knight 
then  published  a  Biography  of  Shakespeare  written  by 
himself  and  began  to  produce  a  Library  Edition  of  the 
poet's  works.     From  that  time  forward  he  used  his  posi- 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF   VICTORIA.  189 

tion  as  a  publisher  for  the  diffusion  of  Shakespeare's 
works  in  various  forms.  "  Knight's  Store  of  Knowledge 
for  all  Readers  "  was  opened  with  two  numbers  on  Shake- 
speare by  Charles  Knight  himself.  After  the  Penny 
Cyclopaedia  was  finished,  there  appeared,  in  June  1844, 
the  first  number  of  "  Knight's  Weekly  Volume,"  a  series 
which  was  continued  for  two  years  without  missing  a 
week.  Then  it  was  continued  for  another  two  years  in 
a  monthly  issue  as  "  the  Shilling  Volume."  In  volumes 
of  this  series  new  books  appeared  which  have  secured 
a  lasting  reputation,  among  them  George  Lillie  Craik's 
Sketch  of  the  History  of  English  Literature.  At  this  time 
"  the  Penny  Magazine  "  was  declining  in  sale.  Its  last 
number  appeared  in  December  1845,  and  the  Society  for 
the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge,  killed  by  the  losses 
on  its  Biographical  Dictionary,  took  leave  of  the  world 
with  an  address  dated  the  11th  of  March,  1846. 

A  Memoir  of  Robert  Chambers  published  by  his  sur- 
viving brother  William  in  1872  "with  Autobiographic 
Reminiscences  "  tells  the  career  of  two  brothers  who,  like 
Charles  Knight,  wrote,  and  published,  and  powerfully  con- 
tributed to  the  cheap  diffusion  of  knowledge.  They  were 
born  at  Peebles,  William  Chambers  in  April  1800,  Robert 
in  July  1802,  each  of  them  with  six  fingers  on  each  hand 
and  six  toes  on  each  foot.  The  outer  fingers  and  toes 
were  removed  successfully  in  William's  case,  but  in  Rob- 
ert's case  not  without  leaving  tender  places  on  the  feet 
that  caused  through  life  some  pain  in  walking.  Their 
father  employed  weavers  in  the  cotton  manufacture,  and 
was  accent  also  for  Glasgow  houses.  When  he  went  on 
business  to  Glasgow,  he  travelled  the  forty  miles  on  foot, 
and  was  two  days  upon  the  road.    Through  too  great  easi- 


190  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ness  in  spending,  lending,  and  giving  credit  he  sank  in 
worldly  position.  The  whole  school  education  of  William 
Chambers  ended  when  he  was  thirteen,  and  cost,  books 
included,  about  six  pounds.  The  fees  at  the  elementary 
school  were  two  and  two  pence  a  quarter,  and  at  the 
Peebles  Grammar  School  five  shillings  a  quarter.  Five 
pounds  in  those  days  would  carry  the  son  of  a  Scottish 
burgher  through  a  course  of  education  that  included  such 
grounding  in  Latin  and  Greek  as  would  prepare  for  the 
junior  classes  at  the  Scottish  Universities.  The  introduc- 
tion of  the  power  loom  put  an  end  to  the  father's  business 
as  an  employer  of  handloom  weavers,  and  he  opened  a 
draper's  shop  in  Peebles,  at  which  he  gave  unlimited 
credit  to  the  French  prisoners  of  war  quartered  in  the 
town.  They  all  went  home  at  the  peace  in  1814,  and  not 
one  of  them  ever  paid  him  a  farthing.  Before  1813  the 
business  had  ended  in  bankruptcy  and  ruin. 

In  December  1813  the  family  left  Peebles  for  Edinburgh, 
the  son  Robert,  whose  lameness  confined  him  much  to  his 
chair  and  who  was  looked  upon  as  the  scholar  of  the 
family,  being  left  in  Peebles  to  go  on  with  his  education. 
In  Edinburgh  William  Chambers,  in  May  1814  and  at  the 
age  of  14,  became  apprentice  to  a  bookseller,  whom  he  was 
to  serve  for  five  years  at  four  shillings  a  week.  At  the 
close  of  1815  his  father  got  employment  as  manager  of 
a  salt  manufactory  called  Joppa  Pans,  on  the  seashore 
between  Portobello  and  Musselburgh.  It  was  established 
to  do  contraband  trade  by  smuggling  salt  over  the  border, 
at  a  time  when  salt  was  subject  to  high  duties  in  England. 
William  was  left  in  Edinburgh  to  keep  himself  on  his  four 
shillings  a  week.  The  rest  of  the  family,  including  Robert, 
went  to  the  smoky  home  at  Joppa  Pans.     Robert  was  at  a 


IN  THE  IiEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  191 

classical  school  at  Edinburgh,  with  some  vague  hope  of 
his  being  prepared  for  the  Church,  and  at  first  he  walked 
to  and  fro  between  school  and  the  saltworks  ;  afterwards 
he  shared  William's  Edinburgh  garret  to  avoid  the  pain 
of  the  long  daily  walk.  William's  employer  was  agent 
for  a  State  Lottery,  and  the  apprentice  saved  his  master 
postage  by  personal  delivery  of  piles  of  circulars.  He 
went  weary  to  bed,  and  had  no  time  of  his  own  but 
what  he  could  make  by  early  rising.  He  and  his  brother 
rose  in  summer  at  five  o'clock  to  read.  They  worked  at 
French  in  this  way,  read  Locke  and  Adam  Smith,  taking 
notes  as  they  studied.  In  winter,  want  of  fire  and  candle 
stood  in  the  way  of  home  work.  But  a  disreputable  jour- 
neyman baker  who  sometimes  earned  a  shilling  a  day  by 
carrying  advertisement  boards  of  the  lottery,  introduced 
the  bookish  apprentice  to  a  baker  who  was  passionately 
fond  of  reading  but  had  no  leisure  to  read.  If  William 
Chambers  would  go  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  and 
read  to  the  baker  and  his  two  sons  while  they  were  pre- 
paring their  batch,  he  should  have  for  his  fee  a  hot  penny 
roll,  fresh  from  the  oven.  So  on  winter  mornings  seated 
on  a  sack  in  the  baker's  cellar,  with  a  penny  candle  stuck 
in  a  bottle  by  his  side,  William  Chambers  gave  morning 
entertainments,  by  reading  novels  of  Fielding  and  Smol- 
lett, also  "  Gil  Bias."  The  entertainment  occupied  two 
hours  and  a  half,  its  price  being  the  penny  roll,  which  was 
a  breakfast.  After  payment  of  lodging  there  remained 
one  and  nine  pence  a  week  for  board  ;  and  as  Sundays  were 
spent  at  the  Salt  Pans,  this  was  three  pence  half  penny 
a  day  for  food. 

Robert  obtained  first  a  little  private  teaching  at  Porto- 
bello ;  then  a  place  in  a  counting  house  five  miles  from 


192  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Edinburgh,  which  was  ill  paid  and  cost  him  a  daily  ten 
miles  walk  ;  then  a  place  in  a  counting  house  at  Leith. 

Trouble  meanwhile  came  again  over  the  household  at 
the  Salt  Pans.  The  father  was  knocked  down  and  robbed 
when  carrying  home  money  collected  in  Edinburgh.  He 
was  disabled  by  the  assault,  and  was  dismissed  by  his 
employers.  Henceforth  he  was  utterly  a  broken  man,  and 
the  care  of  the  family  rested  upon  the  mother.  She  would 
set  up  some  little  business.  William  Chambers  hurried 
home  after  business  when  he  heard  of  his  father's  dis- 
missal, and  he  says,  "  On  my  unexpected  arrival  near 
midnight  —  cold,  wet,  and  wayworn  —  all  was  silent  in 
that  poor  home.  In  darkness  by  my  mother's  bed  side,  I 
talked  with  her  of  the  scheme  she  had  projected.  It  was 
little  I  could  do.  Some  insignificant  savings  were  at  her 
disposal,  and  so  was  a  windfall  over  which  I  had  cause  for 
rejoicing.  By  a  singular  piece  of  good  fortune,  I  had  the 
previous  day  been  presented  with  half  a  guinea  b}r  a  good- 
hearted  tradesman,  on  being  sent  to  him  with  the  agree- 
able intelligence  that  he  had  got  the  sixteenth  of  a  twenty 
thousand  pound  prize  in  the  state  lottery.  The  little  bit 
of  gold  was  put  into  my  mother's  hand.  With  emotion 
too  great  for  words,  my  own  hand  was  pressed  gratefully 
in  return.  The  loving  pressure  of  that  unseen  hand  in 
the  midnight  gloom,  has  it  not  proved  more  than  the 
ordinary  blessing  of  a  mother  on  her  son?" 

In  1818  Robert  Chambers  —  then  only  sixteen  —  was 
dismissed,  as  stupid,  from  his  counting  house  work  at 
Leith.  William  who  was  older  by  two  years  and  three 
months,  and  who,  in  May  of  the  next  year  would  be  out 
of  his  apprenticeship,  then  advised  his  younger  brother  to 
give  up  all  notion  of  seeking  for  employment  and  begin 


IN   TIIE  REIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  193 

work  for  himself,  though  it  could  be  only  in  the  very 
humblest  way,  as  bookseller.  There  was  no  money,  but 
there  were  as  many  old  books  still  in  possession  of  the 
family  as  would  make  a  row  on  a  shelf  twelve  foot  long. 
If  they  added  their  schoolbooks  they  would  make  another 
foot.  William  could  supply  from  Ids  small  savings  one  or 
two  cheap  pocket  Bibles,  for  which  he  knew  that  there 
was  then  growing  demand.  Here  was  a  stock  in  trade.  A 
poor  shop  in  Leith  Walk  with  room  for  a  stall  in  front, 
was  taken  at  a  yearly  rent  of  six  pounds.  Upon  a  plank 
in  front  of  it  the  books  of  the  family  were  placed,  except 
only  the  Family  Bible,  which  had  come  down  for  two 
hundred  years  from  father  to  son.  William  with  his  four 
shillings  a  week  went  to  live  with  his  brother,  and  in  the 
following  year,  when,  at  nineteen,  he  was  out  of  his  ap- 
prenticeship, he  set  up  a  business  of  his  own  in  similar 
fashion.  There  were  no  family  books  to  start  with,  but 
a  travelling  agent  for  the  sale  of  cheap  editions  of  old 
standard  works  at  about  half  the  price  of  those  known  as 
the  "  trade  editions,"  came  to  Edinburgh  and  had  a  trade 
sale  after  a  dinner.  William  Chambers,  who  had  then 
nothing  else  to  do,  assisted  before  dinner  in  arranging  for 
the  sale,  and  next  day  helped  in  the  packing  up.  He  was 
asked  what  he  was  doing  for  himself,  and  replied  that  he 
was  going  to  begin  business  without  money.  If  he  had 
money  he  would  like,  he  said,  to  buy  some  of  those  cheap 
editions,  for  he  thought  he  could  sell  them  to  advantage. 
The  kindly  agent  liked  his  frankness  and  trusted  him 
at  once  with  the  usual  credit  for  ten  poundsworth.  He 
chose  the  books,  packed  them  in  an  empty  tea  chest,  bor- 
rowed a  hotel  truck  and  wheeled  them  to  Leith  Walk, 
where  he  would  have  his  own  separate  stall.     The  last 


194  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

week's  payment  of  apprentice  wages  enabled  him  to  buy  a 
few  deals  from  a  woodyard  with  which  he  made  his  own 
board,  and  a  pair  of  trestles.  So  he  began  business  at 
once,  in  summer  weather.  His  books  were  of  a  salable 
kind,  and  with  great  frugality  and  prudent  management 
the  little  became  more.  He  learnt  to  put  the  new  books 
into  boards  himself,  and  thus  add  three  pence  or  four 
pence  to  the  profit  of  each  volume  by  buj'ing  them  in 
sheets.  In  bad  weather  he  made  copies  of  poems  and  bits 
of  prose  in  fine  penmanship,  in  hope  of  selling  them  for 
albums.  The  fine  penmanship  brought  him  the  goodwill 
of  one  customer  who  gave  him  a  large  order  for  books 
handsomely  bound,  with  leave  to  bring  them  in  small 
parcels  as  he  could  afford  to  get  them  and  with  j)romise 
that  each  parcel  should  be  paid  for  on  delivery.  Next 
year  he  was  able  to  add  to  the  shop  a  backroom  for  a 
dwelling.  The  bed  he  put  in  it  he  curtained  with  brown 
paper. 

Next,  he  wrote  an  account  of  David  Ritchie,  the  origi- 
nal of  Walter  Scott's  Black  Dwarf,  got  it  printed  and 
made  a  little  profit  on  the  sale.  This  suggested  that  if 
he  could  compass  a  printing  press  of  his  own,  it  might 
be  made  a  source  of  profit.  Opportunity  came,  when  a 
struggling  man  was  selling  off  and  quitting  the  neigh- 
bourhood. He  had  constructed  a  rude  printing  press  for 
himself,  a  machine  that  stood  on  a  table,  had  a  printing 
surface  eighteen  inches  by  twelve,  and  creaked  in  work- 
ing so  that  it  could  be  heard  two  houses  off.  For  three 
pounds  William  Chambers  bought  this  press  and  a  small 
stock  of  worn  type.  Having  contrived  to  make  or  buy 
what  else  was  indispensable,  he  began  the  slow  labour  of 
printing  with  this  machine  an  edition  of  750  copies  of  the 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  195 

Songs  of  Burns.  There  was  only  type  enough  for  8  small 
pages,  and  to  produce  an  edition  in  this  way  the  press  had 
to  he  pulled  twenty  thousand  times.  The  reward  of  his 
patience  was  a  profit  of  nine  pounds.  Part  of  this  could 
be  spent  on  improvements  of  the  printing  machine.  By 
cutting  letters  on  wood  with  a  chisel  and  penknife  bold 
headings  were  obtained  for  posting  bills.  So  the  small 
business  improved  a  little.  William  Chambers  wrote  and 
printed  an  account  of  the  Scottish  Gipsies.  Robert  had 
been,  with  equal  thrift,  improving  his  little  business  as 
bookseller,  and  the  two  brothers  in  1821  joined  their  wits 
in  the  production  of  a  magazine  of  which  Robert  was  to 
be  chief  writer,  William  printer  and  publisher  and  also 
writer  as  far  as  time  allowed.  The  magazine,  called."  the 
Kaleidoscope,  or  Edinburgh  Literary  Amusement,"  made 
its  first  appearance  on  the  6th  of  October  1821.  It  was 
to  give  sixteen  8vo  pages  for  three  pence.  As  William 
had  to  set  the  types,  to  print  the  sheet  in  halves,  work  off 
all  copies  and  stitch  the  halves  together  in  the  odd  time 
to  be  spared  from  his  general  business,  "the  Kaleidoscope" 
obliged  him  to  work  sixteen  hours  a  day  and  allow  only  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  for  meals.  The  venture  paid  expenses, 
but  no  more,  and  the  last  number  of  the  Kaleidoscope 
appeared  on  the  12th  of  January  1822. 

By  this  time  each  of  the  brothers  had  so  managed  his 
stock  and  kept  down  his  expenses  as  to  be  worth  about 
two  hundred  pounds.  In  1822  Robert  wrote  and  William 
printed  "Illustrations  of  the  Author  of  Waverley." 
Robert  at  that  time  removed  from  Leith  Walk  to  India 
Place,  and  William  in  the  following  year  removed  to 
Broughton  Street.  Robert  now  developed  more  fully  his 
literary  taste.     He  wrote  his  "  Traditions  of  Edinburgh," 


196  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

produced  in  numbers,  published  in  two  volumes  in  1824, 
when  he  was  only  twenty-two  years  old.  He  obtained 
the  goodwill  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  of  John  Wilson,  and 
others.  There  followed  from  Robert  Chambers,  in  1825, 
"Walks  in  Edinburgh;"  and  in  1826,  "Popular  Rhymes 
of  Scotland."  William  Chambers  sold  the  old  printing 
press  to  another  beginner,  and  enlarged  his  ventures.  He 
wrote  a  "  Book  of  Scotland  "  which  he  sold  to  a  publisher 
for  <£30.  The  books  they  had  produced  caused  the  two 
brothers,  but  chiefly  William,  to  be  employed  by  a  pub- 
lisher in  compilation  of  a  "  Gazetteer  of  Scotland."  For 
this  they  were  paid  a  hundred  pounds.  In  those  days  the 
"  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge  "  began 
its  career.  The  movement  towards  cheap  and  wholesome 
literature,  as  an  aid  to  citizen-building,  gathered  force, 
and  William  Chambers  suggested  to  his  brother  Robert 
that  they  should  try  to  produce  a  cheap  weekly  journal 
containing  matter  that  would  really  benefit  the  many. 
Robert  agreed  to  give  all  possible  help  with  his  pen,  but 
was  discouraged  by. the  general  character  and  condition 
of  the  low  priced  papers.  Accordingly,  with  William 
Chambers  for  editor,  there  appeared  on  the  4th  of  Febru- 
ary 1832  the  first  number  of  "Chambers's  Edinburgh 
Journal,"  price  three  half  pence.  "The  strongholds  of 
ignorance,"  said  the  editor  in  his  opening  address,  "though 
not  unassailed,  remain  to  be  carried."  In  a  few  days  that 
first  number  had  attained  a  sale  in  Scotland  alone  of  fifty 
thousand.  Copies  of  the  third  number  were  sent  to  an 
agent  in  London,  and  the  sale  then  rose  to  eighty  thou- 
sand. So  it  was  that  the  brothers  Chambers  produced 
their  journal,  which  still  lives  and  thrives,  a  few  weeks 
before  the  appearance  in  London,  on  the  31st  of  March, 
of  Charles  Knight's  "  Penny  Magazine." 


IN  THE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  197 

After  the  fourteenth  number  of  Chambers's  Journal  had 
appeared,  the  brothers  no  longer  carried  on  separate  busi- 
nesses but  formed  themselves  into  the  firm  of  W.  &  R. 
Chambers.  In  1833  they  began  to  produce  a  series  of 
sheets  on  distinct  subjects  entitled  "  Chambers's  Informa- 
tion for  the  People,"  which,  as  completed,  forms  two  8vo 
volumes,  and  of  which  there  were  sold  270,000  sets,  nearly 
two  millions  of  sheets.  In  1835  there  was  planned  and 
begun  a  series  of  treatises  and  schoolbooks  entitled  "  Cham- 
bers's Educational  Course,"  to  which  Robert  Chambers 
contributed  a  "  History  of  the  British  Empire "  and  a 
"  History  of  the  English  Language  and  Literature."  Vol- 
umes have  been  added  to  this  series  year  after  year  until 
the  present  day.  That  was  the  position  of  the  brothers 
Chambers  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Victoria.  In 
1838  William  Chambers  visited  the  schools  in  the  Nether- 
lands to  acquire  knowledge  that  would  aid  him  in  his 
practical  attempts  to  advance  education  in  Great  Britain. 
What  he  found  he  told  in  a  book  published  in  1839  as  a 
"  Tour  in  Holland  and  the  Rhine  Countries."  Another 
enterprise  of  the  firm  was  a  series  of  publications  for 
parish,  school,  regimental,  prison  and  other  libraries,  called 
"  Chambers's  Miscellany  of  Useful  and  Entertaining 
Tracts."  These  had  a  very  large  sale,  and  were  completed 
in  twenty  volumes.  Again  another  enterprise,  begun  in 
1859  and  completed  in  ten  yearly  volumes,  was  "  Cham- 
bers's Encyclopedia,  a  Dictionary  of  Universal  Knowledge 
for  the  People." 

The  rough  handmade  printing  press,  bought  for  three 
pounds,  to  which  William  Chambers  had  risen  with  the 
dawn  from  his  poor  bed  curtained  with  brown  paper,  had 
by  this  time  grown  into  twelve  steam  printing  machines, 


198  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

in  an  establishment  that  gathered  under  one  roof  editors, 
compositors,  stereotypers,  wood  engravers,  printers,  book- 
binders, and  which  sent  abroad  an  average  daily  produce 
of  fifty  thousand  sheets  of  publications  various  in  kind 
but  all  of  service  to  society. 

In  1844  Robert  Chambers,  with  the  help  of  Dr.  Robert 
Carruthers  of  Inverness,  completed  in  two  large  volumes 
a  "  Cyclopaedia  of  English  Literature,"  intended  to  diffuse 
a  knowledge  of  the  great  English  writers  by  setting 
numerous  extracts  from  their  writings  in  brief  records  of 
their  lives.  This  work  has  been,  and  still  is,  widely  ser- 
viceable. A  new  and  revised  edition  of  it  was  produced 
in  1860.  Essays  from  Chambers's  Journal  and  other 
works  of  Robert  Chambers  were  collected  in  1847  as  his 
"  Select  Writings "  in  seven  volumes.  For  some  years 
past,  he  had  been  studying  geology.  In  1840  he  had  been 
elected  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh.  He 
has  generally  been  credited  with  the  authorship  of  a  book 
published  in  1844,  "  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of 
Creation  "  that  set  many  talking  and  some  thinking,  and 
was  one  of  the  first  signs  of  a  new  rise  in  the  tide  of 
scientific  thought.     "  Ancient  Sea  Margins,"  published  in 

1848,  was  an  acknowledged  book.     William  Chambers,  in 

1849,  bought  an  estate  in  his  native  county,  and  in  1859 
presented  to  his  native  town  a  building  known  as  "  the 
Chambers  Institution,"  containing  such  aids  to  individual 
growth  as  a  library,  a  reading  room,  a  lecture  hall,  a 
museum,  a  Gallery  of  Art.  In  1864  he  published  a  "  His- 
tory of  Peeblesshire."  Robert  Chambers  would  have 
been  made  Lord  Provost  of  Edinburgh  in  1848,  if  rancor- 
ous feeling  had  not  been  stirred  against  the  supposed 
author  of  a  work  inconsistent  with  a  literal  faith  in  the 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  199 

book  of  Genesis.  But  in  1865,  and  again  in  1869,  William 
Chambers  was  honoured  by  his  fellow  townsmen  in  Edin- 
burgh with  the  office  of  chief  magistrate,  and  in  1872 
the  Edinburgh  University  conferred  on  him  its  honorary 
LL.D.  degree.  That  was  the  year  in  which  he  published 
his  memoir  of  his  brother  Robert,  who  had  died  in  March 
1871.  Robert's  later  books  had  been  "  the  Life  and  Works 
of  Burns  "  in  1851 ;  "  Tracings  of  Iceland  and  the  Faroe 
Islands  "  in  1856 ;  "  Domestic  Annals  of  Scotland  from 
the  Reformation  to  the  Revolution"  in  1858;  the  same 
work  continued  in  1861  to  the  Rebellion.  His  "  Book  of 
Days,"  a  work  upon  which  great  labour  was  spent,  was  in 
course  of  issue  from  1860  to  1867.  Some  help  that  was 
anticipated  failed  him,  and  the  strain  of  labour  was  too 
great.  While  engaged  in  the  work,  he  lost  his  wife,  also 
a  daughter.  "  The  Book  of  Days  "  was  a  success,  but  he 
himself  spoke  of  it  as  his  death  blow.  He  went  for  health 
to  St.  Andrews,  was  made  LL.D.  by  the  University  there, 
and  known  as  "  the  Doctor ; "  but  vigour  of  life  was 
gone.  In  the  course  of  his  life  he  had  produced,  says  his 
brother,  upwards  of  seventy  volumes,  besides  detached 
papers  which  could  hardly  be  counted.  So  it  is  that  our 
strong  men  now  fight  with  the  dragons. 


200  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

OF    WRITERS   "WHO    WERE    BETWEEN    FIFTY    AND    SIXTY 
YEARS   OLD   AT   THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   REIGN. 

Aged  between  fifty  and  sixty  at  the  accession  of 
Victoria  were  Sir  Henry  Ellis,  60 ;  Henry  Hallam,  59 ; 
Thomas  Moore,  58 ;  Horace  Smith,  58 ;  James  Morier, 
57 ;  John  Wilson  Croker,  57 ;  Edward  Jesse,  57 ;  David 
Brewster,  56 ;  Ebenezer  Elliott,  56 ;  William  Jerdan,  55  ; 
Benjamin  Thorpe,  54 ;  Leigh  Hunt,  53 ;  Frederick  Mar- 
ry at,  51.  Of  these  Thomas  Moore  and  Leigh  Hunt  were 
associated  with  the  literature  of  the  past. 

Moore  was  born  in  May  1779  in  a  tavern  in  Dublin. 
He  was  a  clever  child  who  could  be  set  on  a  table  to  recite 
verses,  and  used  also  as  vocalist  to  enliven  domestic  sup- 
pers. A  good  mother  was  determined  that  her  clever  boy 
should  be  well  taught,  and  it  was  to  her  that  he  owed  a  lib- 
eral education  at  Trinity  College  Dublin,  which  was  opened 
in  1753  to  Roman  Catholics,  although  they  were  still 
excluded  from  its  honours.  It  was  his  mother,  again,  who 
scraped  together  money  enough  to  send  her  boy  to  London 
to  be  entered  at  the  Temple.  He  took  with  him  a  Trans- 
lation of  Anacreon  into  free  verse,  which  he  obtained 
leave  to  dedicate  to  the  Prince  Regent.  It  was  published 
in  1800,  and  followed  in  1802  by  frivolities  of  his  own,  in 
verse,  entitled  "  the  Poetical  Works  of  the  late  Thomas 
Little."     Lord  Moira  got  for  Moore  in  1803  an  appoint- 


IN   TUE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  201 

ment  in  Bermuda.  He  went  to  it,  but  did  not  take  it 
seriously,  and  left  it  in  charge  of  a  deputy.  In  180G  he 
published  "  Odes  and  Epistles  "  which  Francis  Jeffrey  con- 
demned for  their  immorality,  explaining,  after  he  had  met 
the  author  in  a  bloodless  duel,  that  he  called  them  immoral 
"  in  a  literary  sense."  Jeffrey  and  Moore  became  good 
friends.  In  1811  Thomas  Moore  married.  He  could  put 
smooth  lines,  with  little  sense  in  them,  to  melodies  of  his 
own  shaping,  and  warble  them  to  his  own  accompaniment. 
A  kindly,  witty,  little  man  with  such  a  gift  could  add 
greatly  to  an  evening's  entertainment.  For  want  of 
strength  of  character  Moore,  therefore,  became  a  diner- 
out,  and  sank  like  Sterne  into  the  position  of  an  orna- 
ment at  great  men's  tables.  He  loved  his  wife,  but  she 
was  not  invited  to  dine  out  with  him.  He  loved  his 
country,  and  of  his  serious  verse  the  best  is  to  be  found 
in  one  or  two  of  the  "  Irish  Melodies  "  that  he  began  to 
produce  in  1807,  and  that  appeared,  with  the  music  set  to 
Irish  airs,  in  the  course  of  the  next  years.  "  The  Two- 
penny Post  Bag,"  in  1812,  showed  an  aptitude  for  light 
political  satire  that  gave  breadth  to  a  reputation  founded 
on  the  Irish  Melodies.  Three  thousand  pounds  were 
offered  to  Moore  for  a  long  poem.  It  appeared  in  1817, 
as  "Lalla  Rookh,"  a  dainty  confection  of  Eastern  ro- 
mance. In  the  next  year  he  went  to  Paris,  and  again 
showed  his  skill  in  playful  verse  satire  with  "  the  Fudge 
Family  in  Paris."  His  reputation  was  then  at  its  highest. 
Other  works  followed,  including  a  Life  of  Sheridan,  and  a 
Life  of  Byron,  in  1830,  for  which  Moore  received  two 
thousand  guineas.  In  1835  the  Whigs  gave  him  a  pension 
of  £300  a  year.  He  had  not  only  entertained  them  well 
at  Holland  House  with  his  musical  genius,  but  he  had 


202  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

aided  their  political  warfare  with  rhymed  satire  that  was 
airy,  witty  and  good-natured.  Moore  could  not  reach  the 
force  of  Byron  as  satirist,  but  if  he  had  less  force  he  had 
more  kindliness.  In  the  reign  of  Victoria  Thomas  Moore 
published  "Alciphron,"  in  1839.  His  Poetical  Works 
were  collected  in  ten  volumes  in  1840-2,  and  he  closed  his 
career  as  a  writer  with  a  "  History  of  Ireland,"  published 
in  1842-5.  In  1848  his  mind  failed.  He  was  then  69 
years  old,  and  he  died  in  February  1852  at  the  age  of  73. 
His  "  Memoirs,  Journals,  and  Correspondence  "  were  pub- 
lished after  his  death  by  his  friend  Lord  John  Russell, 
afterwards  Earl  Russell,  who  was  by  thirteen  years  his 
junior. 

James  Henry  Leigh  Hunt,  like  Moore,  had  been  in  con- 
tact with  Byron  and  his  friends.  His  grandfather  was 
a  Rector  at  Bridgetown,  Barbadoes.  His  father,  educated 
in  America,  graduated  at  Philadelphia  and  New  York, 
became  a  lawyer  in  America,  held  with  the  British  Gov- 
ernment in  the  American  Revolution,  and  was  driven  to 
England.  In  England,  as  he  could  not  practise  law,  he 
was  ordained,  and  ran  into  debt  as  preacher  at  a  chapel  in 
Paddington.  He  became  afterwards  tutor  for  a  time  to 
Mr.  Leigh,  nephew  to  the  Duke  of  Chandos,  and  it  was 
from  him  that  the  son  born  at  Southgate  in  1784  received 
his  name  of  Leigh  Hunt.  The  father  ended  a  career 
of  debts  and  difficulties  in  1809.  Leigh  Hunt  entered 
Christ's  Hospital  at  seven  years  old,  after  Coleridge  had 
left  for  the  University.  When  he  left  school,  he  wrote 
verses  which  his  father  caused  to  be  published  in  1802 
under  the  name  of  "Juvenilia,"  with  a  portrait  of  the 
young  poet,  and  a  long  list  of  subscribers,  chiefly  beaten 
up  from  among  members  of  the  admiring  father's  congre- 


IN   TUE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  203 

gations.  Then  followed  two  or  three  years  of  idling,  play- 
going,  reading,  and  playing  at  being  a  lawyer's  clerk  in 
the  office  of  a  brother  Stephen.  In  1805  Leigh  Hunt's 
brother  John  set  up  a  paper  called  "  the  News,"  and 
Leigh  wrote  criticisms  for  his  paper,  some  of  which  were 
in  the  appendix  of  a  volume,  published  in  1807,  called 
"  Critical  Essays  on  the  Performers  of  the  London  The- 
atres." At  the  beginning  of  1808  the  two  brothers  set  up 
"  the  Examiner,"  and  Leigh  gave  up  a  clerkship  in  the 
War  Office  which  had  been  given  to  him  not  long  before. 
In  1809  he  married.  "  The  Examiner  "  fought  for  reforms 
in  a  way  that  gave  some  offence  to  Whigs  and  much  to 
Tories.  In  1812  "  the  Examiner,"  commenting  upon  some 
fulsome  adulation  of  the  Prince  Regent  by  the  Morning 
Post,  asked  who  could  imagine  "  that  this  '  Exciter  of 
desire  '  (bravo,  Messieurs  of  the  Post  /)  —  this  '  Adonis  in 
loveliness  '  was  a  corpulent  man  of  fifty  !  —  in  short,  this 
delightful,  blissful,  wise,  pleasurable,  honourable,  virtuous, 
true,  and  immortal  prince,  was  a  violator  of  his  word,  a 
libertine  over  head  and  ears  in  disgrace,  a  despiser  of 
domestic  ties,  the  companion  of  gamblers  and  demireps,  a 
man  who  has  just  closed  half  a  century  without  one  single 
claim  on  the  gratitude  of  his  country  or  the  respect  of 
posterity  !  "  A  prosecution  for  libel  having  been  founded 
upon  this  article,  Leigh  Hunt  and  his  brother  were  sen- 
tenced to  two  years  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  five  hun- 
dred pounds  each.  He  was  imprisoned  from  the  3d  of 
February  1813  to  the  same  date  in  1815,  in  a  pleasant 
room  and  with  much  freedom  of  action,  "  the  Examiner  " 
being  meanwhile  continued.  In  1815  Leigh  Hunt  pub- 
lished "  The  Feast  of  the  Poets  "  and  "  The  Descent  of 
Liberty."    In  1816  he  completed  and  published  his  "  Story 


204  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  Rimini,"  a  development  in  graceful,  easy  rhyme  of  the 
story  of  Dante's  Paolo  and  Francesca.  Much  of  it  had 
been  written  in  prison.  He  had  acquired  the  friendship 
of  Shelley  whose  "  Hymn  to  Intellectual  Beauty  "  first 
appeared  in  "the  Examiner."  Shelley's  generosity,  of 
which  many  had  experience,  was  once  shown  to  Leigh 
Hunt  in  the  form  of  a  present  of  fourteen  hundred  pounds 
to  get  him  out  of  debt.  "  I  was  not  extricated,"  says 
Leigh  Hunt,  "  for  I  had  not  yet  learned  to  be  careful :  but 
the  shame  of  not  being  so,  after  such  generosity,  and  the 
pain  which  my  friend  afterwards  underwent  when  I  was 
in  trouble  and  he  was  helpless,  were  the  first  causes  of  my 
thinking  of  money  matters  to  any  purpose."  Shelley  and 
Keats  first  became  acquainted  with  each  other  under  Leigh 
Hunt's  roof.  In  1817,  Leigh  Hunt  published  Essays  by 
himself  and  William  Hazlitt  under  the  name  of  "  the 
Hound  Table."  In  October  1819  he  began  and  continued 
for  sixty-six  weeks  a  paper  called  "  the  Indicator,"  named 
from  an  African  bird,  the  Cucidus  Indicator  of  Linnceus 
that  "  indicates  to  honey  hunters  where  the  nests  of  wild 
bees  are  to  be  found."  "  The  Examiner  "  was  then  declin- 
ing. Shelley  and  Byron  had  a  proposal  for  a  Liberal  jour- 
nal. Leigh  Hunt  was  tempted  to  go  to  Italy  and  talk 
about  it.  On  that  errand  he  left  England  in  November 
1821.  The  issue  of  the  scheme  was  a  quarterly  called 
"the  Liberal,"  of  which  four  numbers  appeared  in  1822 
and  1823.  The  first  number  contained  Byron's  best  satire, 
the  "  Vision  of  Judgment,"  the  second  his  "  Heaven  and 
Earth,"  and  the  fourth  his  translation  from  Pulci's  "  Mor- 
gante  Maggiore."  Back  in  England,  Leigh  Hunt  was 
again  pleasantly  active.  For  half  a  year,  from  January  to 
July,  1828,  he  published  some  of  Ins  pleasantest  essays  in 


IN   THE  BEIGN  OF   VICTORIA.  205 

a  series  of  papers  called  "the  Companion."  In  September 
1830  he  set  up  a  literary  and  theatrical  paper  called  "the 
Tatler,"  which  lasted  until  February  1832.  It  was  a  new 
form  of  a  paper  he  had  started  as  "the  Chat  of  the 
Week,"  which  brought  with  it  difficulties  about  stamp 
duty.  In  1832  he  published  "  Sir  Ralph  Esher,"  a  ficti- 
tious autobiography  of  a  gentleman  of  the  Court  of  Charles 
the  Second.  From  April  1834  to  December  1835  he  was 
producing  a  cheap  miscellany  of  essays,  criticisms  and 
quotations,  called  the  "  London  Journal,"  which  avowed 
its  purpose  to  be  one  with  that  of  the  brothers  Chambers 
in  their  "  Edinburgh  Journal ;  "  only  its  character  was  to 
be  "  a  little  more  southern  and  literary."  It  was  to 
deal  with  "  the  ornamental  part  of  utility."  Its  purpose, 
indeed,  was  that  which  was  fulfilled  by  the  whole  life  of 
Leigh  Hunt,  to  commend  to  the  world,  for  its  own  health, 
the  kindly  graces  of  good  literature.  In  1835  he  pub- 
lished a  poem  condemning  the  War  Spirit.  It  was  enti- 
tled "  Captain  Sword  and  Captain  Pen,"  and  had  Milton's 
lines  from  Paradise  Regained  for  its  motto : 

"  If  there  be  in  glory  ought  of  good, 
It  may  by  means  far  different  be  attained, 
Without  ambition,  war,  or  violence." 

In  this  spirit  Leigh  Hunt  passed  into  the  reign  of  Vic- 
toria. Years  had  sweetened  a  temper  always  gentle,  and 
the  civilizing  touch  of  his  genius  was  to  be  felt  even  in 
the  weakest  of  his  works.  In  February  1840  his  play  of 
"  the  Legend  of  Florence "  was  produced  at  Covent  Gar- 
den, Miss  Ellen  Tree  —  afterwards  Mrs.  Charles  Kean  — 
playing  the  heroine.  The  Queen  went  twice  to  see  it  and 
commanded  its  repetition  at  Windsor.     Its  theme  was  the 


206  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

legend  of  a  wife,  buried  when  in  a  trance,  awaking  in  the 
tomb,  rejected  by  her  husband,  and  seeking  shelter  in  her 
lover's  house.  A  criticism  attributed  to  Sir  Edward 
Lytton  Bulwer  spoke  of  it  as  "one  of  the  finest  plays 
that  has  been  produced  since  Beaumont  and  Fletcher." 

In  1840  Leigh  Hunt  wrote  for  Editions  of  their  Works 
critical  biographies  of  Wycherley,  Congreve,  Vanbrugh, 
Farquhar,  and  Sheridan.  In  1842  he  published  "  the  Pal- 
frey," a  poem  on  an  old  romance  theme.  In  1844  a  volume 
entitled  "  Imagination  and  Fancy  "  had  for  its  purpose  to 
give  selections  of  best  passages  from  English  poets,  with 
aids  to  the  perception  of  their  beauty.  It  included  an 
essay  upon  the  Nature  of  Poetry.  A  companion  book  of 
"Wit  and  Humour,  selected  from  the  English  Poets," 
with  an  illustrative  essay  on  Wit  and  Humour,  followed 
in  184G.  In  these  books  Leigh  Hunt  was  still  showing 
the  honey  hunters  where  the  nests  of  wild  bees  are  to  be 
found.  In  1846  he  published  also  "  Stories  from  the 
Italian  Poets ;  with  Lives  of  the  Writers,"  bringing  home 
to  English  readers  some  taste  of  the  honey  in  Italian  hives. 
In  1848  appeared  as  a  book  "  A  Jar  of  Honey  from  Mount 
Hybla,"  first  published  in  "  Ainsworth's  Magazine "  in 
1844.  His  honey  was  made  of  the  history,  the  legends, 
and  the  poetry  of  Sicily.  In  the  same  year,  1848,  a  volume 
called  "  The  Town  "  was  formed  of  sketches  of  London, 
many  of  which  had  first  appeared  in  Leigh  Hunt's  "  Lon- 
don Journal ;  "  it  is  a  London  graced  with  pleasant  mem- 
ories of  wits  and  poets.  In  1849  followed  "A  Book  for 
a  Corner,"  a  selection  of  things  so  uttered  in  verse  or 
prose  that  "  age  cannot  wither  nor  custom  stale  "  their 
infinite  variety.  In  1849  Leigh  Hunt  provided  a  book  of 
what  he  called  "  Reading  for  Railways :  or  Anecdotes  and 


IN   TUB  EEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  207 

other  Short  Stories,  Reflections,  Maxims,  Characteristics, 
Passages  of  Wit,  Humour,  and  Poetry,  etc."  In  1850, 
when  his  age  was  sixty -six,  he  published  his  Autobiography 
rich  in  recollections  of  the  wits  and  poets  who  were  friends 
of  his  youth,  frank  also  in  a  self-revelation  that  extenuated 
nothing  and  assuredly  set  nothing  down  in  malice. 

In  1853  Leigh  Hunt  published  a  volume  entitled  "  the 
Religion  of  the  Heart.  A  Manual  of  Faith  and  Duty," 
expressing  pure  morality,  with  love  to  God  and  Man,  but 
shrinking  from  the  dogmas  of  theology.  In  1855  he  added 
to  his  volume  on  "  the  Town "  another  that  contained 
memorials  of  Kensington,  "  the  Old  Court  Suburb,"  of 
which  some  chapters  had  been  contributed  to  "  Household 
Words."  In  the  same  }~ear  he  published  a  selection  of 
the  beauties  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  and  a  collection 
of  his  own  "Stories  in  Verse."  Of  four  unpublished 
plays  that  remained  by  him,  one,  "  Lover's  Amazements," 
was  produced  with  success  in  1858,  the  year  before  its 
author's  death  at  the  age  of  seventy-five.  He  had  written 
also  an  essay  of  considerable  length  on  "  the  Sonnet,"  as 
part  of  a  book  planned  in  America,  which  appeared  in 
1867  as  "  The  Book  of  the  Sonnet.  Edited  by  Leigh 
Hunt  and  S.  Adams  Lee." 

Horace  Smith,  who  lived  through  the  first  ten  years  of 
the  reign  of  Victoria,  and  contributed  some  novels  to  the 
Literature  of  the  Reign,  was  about  five  years  older  than 
Leigh  Hunt.  The  brothers  James  and  Horace  Smith  were 
sons  of  a  solicitor.  James  the  elder  followed  his  father's 
profession  and  Horace  became  a  stockbroker.  In  1812 
they  grew  famous  by  clever  parodies  of  the  styles  of  the 
chief  poets  who  were  supposed  to  have  contributed  Ad- 
dresses to  be   spoken   at   the  reopening  of  Drury  Lane. 


208  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"The  Rejected  Addresses"  went  through  twenty-four 
editions.  James,  the  elder  brother,  wrote  no  more,  and 
died  in  1839.  But  Horace  produced  a  dozen  books  in  the 
days  of  George  IV.  and  William  IV.,  his  first  and  best 
novel  being  "  Brambletye  House  "  in  1826.  In  the  years 
between  1840  and  1845  Horace  Smith  published  "  Oliver 
Cromwell;"  "the  Moneyed  Man;"  "Adam  Brown;" 
"  Arthur  Arundel  "  and  "  Love  and  Mesmerism."  In  1846 
his  "  Poetical  Works  "  were  collected.  Leigh  Hunt  writes 
that  Shelley  once  said  to  him,  "  I  know  not  what  Horace 
Smith  must  take  me  for  sometimes :  I  am  afraid  he  must 
thing  me  a  strange  fellow  :  but  is  it  not  odd,  that  the  only 
truly  generous  person  I  ever  knew,  who  had  money  to  be 
generous  with,  was  a  stockbroker !  And  he  writes  poetry 
too,"  continued  Shelley,  his  voice  rising  in  a  fervour  of 
astonishment  —  "he  writes  poetry,  and  pastoral  dramas, 
and  yet  knows  how  to  make  money,  and  does  make  it,  and 
is  still  generous  !  " 

Ebenezer  Elliott,  who  became  known  as  "  the  Corn  Law 
Rhymer,"  was  born  in  1781,  one  of  the  eight  survivors  of 
eleven  children.  His  father  was  a  clerk  in  a  foundry  at 
Masborough,  a  suburb  of  Rotherham  in  Yorkshire,  where 
his  salary  was  sixty  or  seventy  pounds  a  year  with  house, 
candle  and  coal.  His  mother  once  confided  to  young 
Ebenezer  a  dream  of  her  maiden  life:  "I  had  placed 
under  my  pillow  a  shank  bone  of  mutton  to  dream  upon ; 
and  I  dreamed  that  I  saw  a  little  broad-set,  dark,  ill- 
favoured  man,  with  black  hair,  black  eyes,  thick  stub-nose 
and  tup-shins :  it  was  thy  father."  It  was  a  lively  father 
who  preached  ultra-Calvinism  once  a  month  on  Sundays, 
and  gloried  on  weekdays  in  Cromwell  and  Washington. 
After  some  schooling,  young  Ebenezer  was  put  to  work  in 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  209 

the  foundry.  An  illustrated  book  of  botany  drew  him  to 
plants  ;  he  traced  the  pictures,  sought  and  dried  the  plants. 
He  heard  his  brother  one  day  read  a  part  of  Thomson's 
"  Seasons "  in  which  the  polyanthus  and  auricula  were 
described,  compared  the  verse  afterwards  with  the  living 
flowers,  and  was  drawn  to  delight  in  Thomson.  Then 
he  began  to  versify,  with  an  imitation  of  Thomson's  de- 
scription of  a  thunderstorm.  When  Ebenezer  was  four- 
teen years  old,  a  poor  curate  died  and  bequeathed  his 
books  to  Ebenezer's  father.  At  twelve,  he  says,  he  had 
almost  known  the  Bible  by  heart;  at  sixteen  he  could 
repeat,  without  missing  a  word,  the  first,  second,  and  sixth 
books  of  "Paradise  Lost."  His  first  publication  was  a 
poem  written  at  the  age  of  seventeen  called  "  the  Vernal 
Walk,"  for  which  he  found  a  printer  at  Cambridge.  Then 
he  tried  tales,  and  even  a  dramatic  poem  upon  Bothwell. 
Till  the  age  of  23  he  was  still  working  in  the  Foundry,  in 
which  he  obtained  a  share.  But  the  foundry  failed  at 
Rotherham,  and  in  1831  Ebenezer  Elliott  began  business 
apart  in  Sheffield,  with  £100  of  borrowed  money.  He 
dealt  in  the  raw  material  of  Sheffield  cutlery,  and  throve 
for  the  next  six  years.  In  1832  he  published  the  "  Corn 
Law  Rhymes,"  by  which  he  made  his  mark  in  Literature. 
Intense  conviction  that  most  of  the  troubles  of  the  country 
were  rooted  in  Protection  gave  force  to  the  use  of  his  gift 
as  a  rhymer  for  attack  upon  the  Corn  Laws.  And  what, 
he  asked  in  the  Prologue  to  his  book, 

And  what  but  scorn  and  slander  will  reward 

The  rabble's  poet,  and  his  honest  song  ? 
Gambler  for  blanks,  thou  play'st  an  idiot's  card ; 

For,  sure  to  fall,  the  weak  attacks  the  strong. 

Aye !  but  what  strength  is  theirs  whose  might  is  based  on  wrong  ? 


210  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Victoria,  Ebenezer 
Elliott  was  in  business  at  Sheffield  with  a  wife  and  family 
in  his  home  at  Upperthorpe.  He  still  gave  definite  form 
to  his  conception  of  what  man  has  made  of  man,  and  with 
the  zeal  of  a  writer  to  whom  one  truth  fervidly  appre- 
hended stands  for  all  truth,  held  that  "the  Corn  Laws 
are  the  cause  of  all  the  crime  that  is  committed."  In 
1842  he  gave  up  business,  realizing  about  seven  thousand 
pounds,  and  withdrew  to  an  eight  roomed  cottage  that  he 
built  for  himself  on  land  bought  at  Great  Houghton  near 
Barnsley.  He  had  put  six  sons  out  into  the  world,  and 
there  remained  only  the  wife  and  two  daughters  in  the 
happy  home.  One  of  his  sayings  was  that  "  it  is  a  positive 
duty  to  marry,  and  also  to  be  a  Radical,  that  good  legisla- 
tion may  allow  marriage  to  be  as  happy  as  it  ought."  He 
was  correcting  proof  sheets  of  his  last  volume  "More 
Prose  and  Verse,"  just  before  his  death  in  1849. 

The  forms  of  character  are  infinitely  various,  though  a 
score  of  generic  types  would  probably  contain  them  all. 
The  shrewd,  honest  single-minded  zealot,  who  fights  for 
one  cause,  which  is  to  him  the  cause  of  causes,  and  who 
looks  neither  to  the  right  nor  left  of  it,  may  be  as  great  as 
Luther ;  as  serviceable  for  one  battle  as  Ebenezer  Elliott ; 
as  weak  as  the  feeblest  crotchetmonger ;  who  falls  out  of 
whatever  ranks  he  enters  if  his  comrades  do  not  give 
their  whole  minds  to  the  worship  of  some  fetish  of  his 
own.  In  all  the  type  is  clear,  and  so  is  its  place  or  use  in 
the  world's  history.  The  type  of  the  soldier  has  not 
changed  since  the  beginning  of  history ;  nor  has  that  of 
the  scholar. 

The  Principal  Librarian  of  the  British  Museum  at  the 
accession  of  Victoria  was  Sir  Henry  Ellis,  born  in  1777. 


IN   TIIE  REIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  211 

He  was  educated  at  Merchant  Taylor's  school  and  at 
Oxford ;  published  a  History  of  St.  Leonard's  Shoreditch 
when  he  was  21 ;  graduated ;  obtained  a  Fellowship  from 
his  College,  St.  John's,  and  was  an  Assistant  Librarian, 
first  at  the  Bodleian,  then  in  the  British  Museum.  He 
married  in  1805 ;  in  1806  was  made  Keeper  of  the  Printed 
Books  and  in  1812  Keeper  of  the  MSS.  in  the  British 
Museum.  He  was  Fellow  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries 
and  of  the  Royal  Society.  In  1814  he  was  appointed 
Secretary  to  the  Trustees.  In  1816  he  published  an 
introduction  to  Domesday  Book.  In  1818  he  edited  Dug- 
dale's  "  Monasticon  ;  "  in  1824  published  a  first  collection 
of  "  Letters  Illustrative  of  English  History."  In  1827  he 
was  appointed  Principal  Librarian  of  the  Museum,  and 
about  the  same  time  published  a  second  volume  of  his 
Illustrative  Letters.  In  1832  Mr.  Ellis  was  knighted  by 
William  IV.  Sir  Henry  Ellis  wrote  on  the  Towneley 
Marbles  in  1834,  on  the  Elgin  and  Phigaleian  Marbles  in 
1836.  His  chief  contribution  to  Victorian  Literature  was 
a  third  volume  of  "  Letters  Illustrative  of  English  His- 
tory," published  in  1846.  His  wife  died  in  1854  within  a 
year  of  their  golden  wedding  day,  and  two  years  later  he 
resigned  his  office  of  Librarian,  his  age  then  being  seven- 
ty-nine. But  he  lived  on  into  his  ninety-second  year,  dy- 
ing in  January  1869.  Blind  study  of  the  past,  as  Selden 
said,  the  too  studious  affectation  of  bare  and  sterile  anti- 
quity is  nothing  else  but  to  be  exceeding  busy  about  noth- 
ing, but,  he  added,  "the  neglect  or  only  vulgar  regard 
of  the  fruitful  and  precious  part  of  it,  which  gives  neces- 
sary light  to  the  present  in  matter  of  State,  Law,  History 
and  the  understanding  of  good  authors,  is  but  preferring 
that  kind  of  ignorant  infancy  which  our  short  life  alone 


212  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

allows  us  before  the  many  ages  of  former  experience  and 
observation,  which  may  so  accumulate  years  to  us  as  if 
we  had  lived  from  the  beginning  of  time."  In  this  true 
sense  Sir  Henry  Ellis  was  an  antiquary. 

Like  honour  is  due  to  Benjamin  Thorpe  and  Joseph 
Bosworth,  who  were  the  revivers  in  this  country  of  the 
study  of  the  ancient  Literature  and  Language  of  the 
people.  Thorpe  was  born  in  1783,  Bosworth  in  1790. 
Benjamin  Thorpe  in  the  course  of  a  long  life  of  about 
ninety  years,  edited  all  the  chief  pieces  of  First  English 
or  Anglo-Saxon  Literature ;  Csedmon,  in  1882  for  the 
Society  of  Antiquaries ;  in  1834,  his  "  Analecta  Anglo- 
Saxonica  "  included  iElfric's  Colloquy  and  the  fine  frag- 
ment of  Judith.  Within  the  reign  of  Victoria  Mr.  Thorpe 
edited,  in  1842,  the  important  collection  of  poems  known 
as  the  "  Codex  Exoniensis,"  in  1846  the  "  Anglo-Saxon 
Gospels,"  in  1853  "King  Alfred's  Orosius,"  in  1855  "Beo- 
wulf," in  1865  the  "  Diplomatarium  Anglicum  ^Evi  Sax- 
onici,"  a  collection  of  English  Charters  from  the  time 
of  Ethelbert  to  the  Conquest.  Thorpe  also  printed  at 
Copenhagen  in  1830  a  translation  of  Erasmus  Rask's 
Grammar  of  Anglo-Saxon,  and  in  1865  reproduced  it  in  a 
cheap  form  for  the  use  of  students.  Benjamin  Thorpe's 
studies  in  later  life  extended  to  Icelandic,  and  he  pub- 
lished in  1866  a  translation  of  Ssemund's  Edda. 

Dr.  Bosworth,  who  published  in  1823  a  small  Anglo- 
Saxon  Grammar,  produced  a  substantial  Anglo-Saxon 
Dictionary  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign,  in  1838,  which 
he  reproduced  in  a  cheap  form  revised  and  abridged  for 
the  common  use  of  students  ten  years  later.  He  was  at 
work  upon  the  larger  revision  and  the  full  elaboration  of 
his  dictionary  when  he  died,  but  he  found  time  to  produce 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  213 

in  1855  a  standard  edition  of  the  text  of  "  King  Alfred's 
Orosius "  from  collation  of  MSS.  In  Oxford  alone  had 
the  attempts  made  in  the  past  to  found  University  Pro- 
fessorships of  Anglo-Saxon  not  entirely  failed.  Dr.  Bos- 
worth  occupied  the  chair  of  Anglo-Saxon  when  he  died, 
and  left  provision  by  his  will  for  the  re-establishment  of  a 
like  Chair  at  Cambridge.  Such  students  as  these  have 
strengthened  the  foundation  of  a  scientific  study  of  the 
past,  but  History  had  varied  little  from  the  form  of  gen- 
eralization that  had  been  established  by  the  influence  of 
Hume  and  Gibbon  when  Henry  Hallam  wrote. 

Henry  Hallam,  son  of  a  Dean  of  Bristol,  was  born  in 
1777.  He  studied  at  Eton  and  Oxford,  settled  in  Lon- 
don, and  was  among  the  first  contributors  to  "  the  Edin- 
burgh Review."  In  1818  he  published  the  earliest  of  his 
three  histories,  a  "View  of  the  State  of  Europe  during 
the  Middle  Ages."  Its  wealth  of  good  matter  was  kept 
at  arm's  length  from  the  reader  by  use  of  a  Latin  vocabu- 
lary and  the  conventional  style  which  in  1818  was  still 
thought  by  many  to  be  dignified.  The  style  of  the 
second  work  "the  Constitutional  History  of  England 
from  the  Accession  of  Henry  VII.  to  the  Death  of  George 
II.,"  published  in  1827,  was  far  better.  Anxieties  over  a 
first  book  no  longer  oppressed  him.  He  had  the  dignity 
of  a  real  interest  in  his  theme,  a  theme  to  his  taste, 
and  he  expressed  accurately  the  result  of  calm  and  clear 
thought  working  upon  knowledge.  Of  English  Constitu- 
tional History  before  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  Hallam  had 
given  a  sketch  in  his  "  View  of  Europe  during  the  Middle 
Ages."  The  superiority  of  Hallam's  "  Constitutional 
History  "  to  his  next  book  is  very  distinct.  This  third 
history  was   published   at  the   beginning  of  the  present 


214  OF  ENGLISn  LITERATURE 

reign,  in  1837-9,  and  is  an  "  Introduction  to  the  Litera- 
ture of  Europe  in  the  15th,  16th,  and  17th  centuries." 
Henry  Hallara  had  lost  in  1833  his  eldest  son,  the  A.  H. 
H.  of  Tennyson's  "  In  Memoriam."  Other  griefs,  through 
sickness  and  deaths  or  dread  of  deaths  at  home,  troubled 
the  mind  of  one  of  the  gentlest  of  scholars.  This  may 
have  weakened  his  hold  on  his  work;  but  his  sense  of 
poetry  was  weak,  and  he  was  a  blind  guide  to  the  study 
of  the  poets.  Those  parts  of  the  work  that  had  real 
interest  for  its  writer,  that  touched  the  line  of  his  own 
tastes  and  studies,  and  came  fairly  within  reach  of  his 
clear  judgment,  are,  however,  of  enduring  value.  Henry 
Hallam  died  in  January  1859.  His  books  live  and  will 
live.  No  historian  of  our  time  has  ventured  on  as  wide  a 
range  of  study,  or  has  shown  a  wider  range  of  power. 

Two  novelists  are  yet  to  be  named  among  the  writers 
who  were  nearly  of  Hallam's  age  ;  they  are  James  Morier 
and  Captain  Marryat.  James  Morier,  born  in  1780,  was 
appointed  in  1810  British  Envoy  to  the  Court  of  Persia. 
He  published  in  1812  his  "  Earlier  Travels  through  Persia, 
Armenia,  Asia  Minor  to  Constantinople,"  and  in  1818 
published  "  A  second  Journey  through  Persia."  In  1824 
he  used  his  knowledge  of  Persian  life  in  a  first  novel  "  the 
Adventures  of  Hajji  Baba  in  Ispahan,"  which  was  fol- 
lowed in  1828  by  "  Hajji  Baba  in  England,"  where  he  is 
duly  impressed  by  the  "moonfaced  Bessies"  and  other 
wonders  of  the  land.  Hajji  Baba  having  established 
firmly  Morier's  credit  as  a  lively  novelist  with  a  theme 
of  his  own  and  master  of  it,  there  followed,  still  with 
more  or  less  in  them  of  the  humour  or  romance  of  Persian 
life,  in  1832  "  Zohrab,"  and  in  1834  "  Ayesha."  Within 
the  present  reign  he  published  in  1837  "  Abel  Allnut ; " 


IN  THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  215 

in  1839  » the  Banished  ;  "  in  1841  » the  Mirza ;  "  in  1842 
"  Martin  Toutrond."     James  Morier  died  in  1848. 

Frederick  Marryat,  born  in  1786,  like  Morier  drew  his 
novels  from  a  side  of  life,  with  humours  of  its  own,  which 
was  familiar  to  him  and  new  to  most  of  his  readers.  He 
distinguished  himself  in  the  navy  during  the  war  time 
before  1814,  was  made  a  captain  for  his  services  in  the 
Burmese  war,  and  earned  a  good  service  pension.  In 
1834  he  broke  fresh  ground  for  the  public  entertainment 
with  "  Peter  Simple,"  a  light-hearted  novel  of  sailor  life 
and  its  oddities.  It  was  immediately  followed  by  a  sec- 
ond novel,  not  less  pleasant,  "  Jacob  Faithful."  In  the 
following  year  Marryat  published  a  collection  of  short 
stories,  "  The  Pacha  of  many  Tales,"  and  then  came 
another  sailor's  novel,  "  Japhet  in  Search  of  a  Father." 
Upon  the  three  novels  "  Peter  Simple,"  "  Jacob  Faithful," 
and  "  Japhet  in  Search  of  a  Father  "  Captain  Manyat's 
reputation  rested.  He  never  surpassed  them,  but  in  all 
that  followed  there  was  wholesome  variety  and  always  a 
fresh  breath  from  the  sea.  "  Midshipman  Easy,"  and  "  the 
Pirate,"  and  "  Three  Cutters  "  were  published  at  the  end 
of  the  reign  of  William  IV.  In  the  reign  of  Victoria, 
during  its  first  ten  years,  Captain  Marryat  remained  a 
busy  writer,  and  produced  a  dozen  novels,  beginning 
with  "  Snarleyyow,  or  the  Dog  Fiend,"  in  1837,  and  end- 
ing in  1847  with  "  the  Children  of  the  Forest."  He  died 
in  August  1848. 

A  daughter,  Florence,  born  in  the  year  of  the  accession 
of  Victoria,  has  inherited  some  touch  of  her  father's  skill 
and  is  known  as  Florence  Marryat  —  now  Mrs.  Francis 
Lean,  author  of  many  novels  that  are  widely  read.  She 
published  also  in  1872  the  "  Life  and  Letters "  of  her 
father. 


216  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

William  Jerdan,  born  at  Kelso  in  1782,  lived  to  the  age 
of  eighty-seven,  and  at  the  age  of  84  published,  in  1866, 
a  book  about  "  Men  I  have  known."  His  way  of  life 
brought  him  for  half  a  century  in  close  relation  with  good 
writers.  He  began  life  with  little  education,  had  a  desire 
towards  the  business  of  literature,  became  an  active  jour- 
nalist, wrote  for  newspapers  and  was  for  two  or  three 
years  part  proprietor  and  editor  of  "the  Sun,"  but  he 
had  a  quarrel  with  a  joint  proprietor  that  found  its  way 
into  the  Court  of  Chancery.  In  1817  William  Jerdan 
founded  "  the  Literary  Gazette,"  earliest  of  the  modern 
literary  papers ;  earliest  of  all  was  the  "  Mercurius  Libra- 
rius,"  started  in  1680.  William  Jerdan  was  editor  of 
"  the  Literary  Gazette  "  for  33  years,  from  1817  to  1850, 
and  in  that  position  had  abundant  opportunity  of  busying 
himself  among  the  authors.  A  literary  paper  called  "  the 
Athenaeum  "  had  been  started  by -Dr.  Aikin  in  1807,  but 
it  died  in  1809.  The  name  was  revived  for  a  literary 
paper  that  was  among  the  feebler  ventures  of  James  Silk 
Buckingham,  and  Jerdan's  "  Literary  Gazette,"  though 
not  vigorous,  had  its  own  way  until  "  the  Athenaeum " 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Charles  Wentworth  Dilke  (born 
in  1789)  who  had  then  retired  on  a  pension  from  the 
Navy  Pay  Office.  Under  Mr.  Dilke's  vigorous  manage- 
ment "  the  Athenaeum  "  soon  became  the  leading  literary 
journal,  and  "  the  Literary  Gazette  "  gave  but  a  dim  light 
during  the  latter  years  of  William  Jerdan's  management. 
After  quitting  it,  he  wrote  his  "  Autobiography  "  in  four 
volumes,  published  in  1853-4.  "  The  Literary  Gazette  " 
struggled  for  life  until  1862  when  it  tried  the  effect  of 
change  of  name,  and  became  "the  Parthenon."  As  "the 
Parthenon"   it   died   in    1863.     "The   Athenaeum"   has 


IN  THE  IiEIGN  OF  VICTOIilA.  217 

maintained  its  position.  Various  attempts  have  been 
made  to  provide  general  readers  with  a  second  weekly- 
literary  paper.  From  1844  to  1863  there  was  "  the 
Critic;"  from  1863  to  1867  there  was  "the  Reader," 
which  did  not  long  survive  an  article  in  which  Mr.  F.  J. 
Furnivall  attacked  Dr.  Johnson's  Preface  to  his  Dic- 
tionary under  the  belief  that  it  was  just  written  by  a 
modern  editor.  In  1869  Dr.  Charles  Appleton,  a  man  of 
fine  accomplishments  and  earnest  character,  whose  early 
death  in  1879  was  regretted  throughout  England,  estab- 
lished a  weekly  literary  journal  called  "  the  Academy,"  in 
which  the  writers  were  to  sign  their  papers.  The  aim  of 
the  projector  was  a  pure  and  high  one,  there  was  no 
thought  in  his  mind  of  business  rivalry  or  journal-found- 
ing as  a  money  speculation  ;  he  had  earnest  friends  to 
help  him,  and  the  direct  sincerity  of  purpose  gave  an  im- 
pulse to  his  paper,  which  he  named  "  the  Academy,"  that 
has  retained  force  until  the  present  day. 

John  Wilson  Croker,  born  in  Gal  way  in  1780,  was  edu- 
cated at  Trinity  College  Dublin  and  called  to  the  bar  in 
1807.  He  became  Secretary  to  the  Admiralty,  an  active 
politician,  and  a  frequent  writer  in  the  "  Quarterly  Re- 
view." He  was  made  a  Privy  Councillor  in  1828.  His 
chief  contribution  to  Literature  was  an  edition,  published 
in  1831,  of  Boswell's  "  Life  of  Johnson."  Within  the  reign 
of  Victoria  he  edited  in  1848  Lord  Hervey's  Memoirs; 
published  in  1853  a  "  History  of  the  Guillotine,"  reprinted 
from  "the  Quarterly  Review"  of  1844;  and,  at  the  close 
of  his  life,  published  reprints  from  "  the  Quarterly "  of 
Essays  on  the  French  Revolution.  He  died  in  1857. 
There  may  have  been  something  of  the  feeling  of  a  party- 
writer  on  one  side  towards  a  party  writer  on  the  other  side 


218  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

in  Macaulay's  condemnation  of  Croker's  Boswell  for  bad 
scholarship,  gross  carelessness,  bad  English,  and  weak  judg- 
ment; but  the  weak  book  certainly  came  to  pieces  in  the 
strong  man's  hand.  Of  Croker's  imperfect  understanding 
of  Johnson  himself,  Macaulay  said  little,  for  his  own  insight 
into  Johnson's  character  was  much  less  deep  than  Carlyle's. 
An  edition  of  Croker's  Boswell  was  afterwards  issued  in 
which  all  discovered  errors  were  corrected. 

Edward  Jesse,  the  author  of  some  pleasant  books  of 
popular  natural  history,  was  a  clergyman's  son,  born  in 
1780.  He  obtained  offices  at  courts,  through  the  friend- 
ship of  Lord  Dartmouth,  whom  he  had  served  as  private 
secretary.  In  1830,  when  his  offices  were  abolished,  he 
obtained  a  pension.  He  published  in  1846  "Anecdotes 
of  Dogs,"  and  in  the  following  year  a  book  of  "  Favourite 
Haunts  and  Rural  Studies."  He  also  edited  Izaak  Wal- 
ton's "Complete  Angler"  and  Gilbert  White's  "Natural 
History  of  Selborne."  He  died  in  1868.  His  literary  taste 
was  inherited  by  his  son,  John  Heneage  Jesse,  born  in  1815, 
who  became  a  Civil  Servant  in  the  Admiralty.  He  pub- 
lished a  poem  at  the  age  of  sixteen  on  Mary  Queen  of  Scots, 
and  dealt  afterwards  with  history  as  a  prose  writer.  He 
published  in  1839  four  volumes  of  "  Memoirs  of  the  Court 
of  England  during  the  Reign  of  the  Stuarts ;  "  in  1843 
three  volumes  of  "  Memoirs  of  the  Court  of  London  from 
the  Revolution  in  1688  to  the  Death  of  George  II.;"  in 
1845  "Memoirs  of  the  Pretenders  and  their  Adherents;" 
in  1847-50  four  volumes  of  "  Literary  and  Historical  Mem- 
oirs of  London  and  its  Celebrities;"  in  1861  "Richard  III. 
and  his  Contemporaries ;  "  and  in  1867  "  Memoirs  of  the 
Life  and  Reign  of  George  III."  He  died  in  July  1874. 
The  impulse  to  write  passed  also  to  the  eldest  daughter 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  219 

of  Edward  Jesse,  Mrs.  Houstoun,  who  wrote  two  books 
of  travel,  and  several  novels,  "  Recommended  to  Mercy," 
"  Such  Things  Are,"  etc. 

There  remains  one  man  of  the  group  of  writers  who  were 
between  fifty  and  sixty  years  old  at  the  beginning  of  the 
reign,  and  he  is  representative  of  pure  Science,  Sir  David 
Brewster,  born  at  Jedburgh  in  1781.  He  left  Divinity  for 
Science.  In  1815  he  received  from  the  Royal  Society  the 
Copley  Medal,  and  again  in  1818,  for  his  discoveries  in 
polarisation  of  light.  He  had  been  engaged  at  this  time 
for  some  years,  and  remained  busy  till  1830,  on  the  pro- 
duction of  a  Cyclopredia,  to  which  young  Carlyle  contrib- 
uted, and  he  was  working  at  the  practical  application  of  his 
studies  of  light  to  the  improvement  of  lighthouses.  He 
received  honorary  degrees  from  Edinburgh,  Aberdeen,  Ox- 
ford and  Cambridge ;  became  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Socie- 
ties of  London  and  Edinburgh ;  received  the  Royal  Medal 
of  the  Royal  Society  in  1830 ;  and  was  knighted  in  1832. 
He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  "the  British  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,"  which  held  the  first  of 
its  annual  meetings  in  1831 ;  and  he  was  at  the  same  time 
ft-llow-worker  with  Brougham  and  others  for  the  general 
advancement  of  knowledge  as  the  chief  civilizing  power. 
He  died  in  February  1868.  His  "  Treatise  on  Optics"  was 
published  in  1831.  Within  the  present  reign  he  published, 
in  1841,  a  volume  entitled  "Martyrs  of  Science,"  and  in 
1 854  "  More  Worlds  than  One."  This  was  followed  in  1855 
by  "  Memoirs  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,"  to  the  study  of  whom 
he  had  been  especially  drawn  by  his  own  study  of  light. 


220  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


CHAPTER  IX. 

MEN  OF  THE  NEXT  DECADE  OF  YEARS. 

When  we  watch  the  tide  as  it  flows  in,  wave  after  wave 
goes  back  over  its  old  ground.  There  seems  to  be  as  much 
retreating  as  advancing,  and  it  is  so  here  with  the  tide  of 
life  as  it  draws  nearer  to  the  ground  on  which  we  stand. 
With  the  writers  born  within  the  next  ten  years,  those 
who  were  between  forty  and  fifty  at  the  beginning  of  the 
reign,  we  have  another  wave  advancing  over  time  that  has 
already  once  or  twice  been  covered.  Forty-nine  was  the 
age  of  Sir  Francis  Palgrave,  Sir  William  Hamilton  and 
Theodore  Hook.  Forty-eight  was  the  age  of  Richard  Har- 
ris Barham,  author  of  the  Ingoldsby  Legends.  Dr.  Bos- 
worth,  already  spoken  of,  John  Payne  Collier  and  Bryan 
Waller  Procter  (Barry  Cornwall)  were  forty-seven.  Lord 
John  Russell  and  Henry  Hart  Milman  were  forty-six. 
Half  a  dozen  writers  were  forty-five  years  old,  Michael 
Faraday,  Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  John  Keble,  Sir  Archi- 
bald Alison  and  Sir  John  Bowring,  also  Mrs.  Somerville 
and  Charles  Knight,  who  have  been  included  in  the  record 
of  distinct  movements  of  thought.  William  Maginn,  who 
wrote  as  Father  Prout,  was  forty-four.  Forty-three  was 
the  age  of  John  Gibson  Lockhart,  of  George  Grote  and 
of  Thomas  Arnold,  whose  son  Matthew  Arnold  was  then 
a  boy  of  fifteen.  Thomas  Carlyle  was  forty-two  years  old 
and  two  novelists  were  severally  aged  forty-one  and  forty, 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  221 

George  Richard  Gleig  and  Samuel  Lover.  Sir  Charles 
Lyell  was  forty.  When  "\ve  have  glanced  at  the  work  of 
these  writers,  leaving  only  Thomas  Carlyle  to  be  associ- 
ated with  the  later  generation,  we  shall  have  only  to  speak 
of  writers  who  represent  the  literature  with  which  we  are 
in  immediate  contact,  writers  of  whom  the  earliest  born, 
if  lie  had  reached  old  age,  would  in  the  course  of  nature 
have  been  living  now.  Their  fellowship  of  work  joins,  as 
the  world  needs,  old  and  young,  the  caution  of  experience 
and  the  courage  of  hope,  in  labour  that,  each  in  his  own 
wa}T,  their  living  readers  share. 

Reaction  from  the  literature  of  gloom  and  tears  and 
strained  emotion,  quickened  the  public  readiness  for  jest. 
The  healthy  English  character  has  a  quick  sense  of  fun. 
In  the  days  of  the  stiff  French  critical  influence,  fun  had 
been  dismissed  as  vulgar.  When  the  reaction  against 
formalism  set  in,  there  was  a  gush  of  emotion,  an  intensity 
of  diverse  speculation,  that,  doubtless,  was  cause  of  good 
mirth  in  the  way  of  ridicule,  but  in  itself  was  often  as 
oppressive  as  the  superseded  formalism.  With  the  reaction 
against  this  kind  of  excess  came  first  an  increased  demand 
for  jokes,  by  way  of  change.  Life  had  not  come  to  be 
more  frivolous,  but  its  frivolity  had  come  to  be  more  open. 
And  presently  afterwards,  since  reaction  is  always  from 
one  extreme  to  its  opposite,  there  came  over  society  a 
fashion,  or  as  Ben  Jonson's  Poetaster  would  have  called 
it,  a  humour,  for  the  cynical  air  of  one  who  would  seem  to 
have  no  zeal  about  anything.  That,  being  as  insincere  as 
the  false  sentiment,  was  a  form  of  stupidity  which  could 
hardly  pass  for  an  improvement  even  upon  the  frank  rude- 
ness of  practical  jesting. 

Theodore  Hook  was  good  for  nothing  if  he  was   not 


222  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

funny,  and  his  fun  was  that  of  buoyant  spirits  Weighted 
with  no  wisdom.  lie  was  born  in  1788,  and  died  in  1841. 
His  father  was  a  musical  composer,  a  brother  of  his  became 
Dean  of  Worcester.  lie  wrote  for  the  theatres,  and  ac- 
quired high  social  reputation  as  a  table  companion.  He 
could  keep  up  a  running  fire  of  jokes,  or  pour  out,  at  will, 
a,  string-  of  rhymes  that  introduced  playful  allusions  to 
every  member  of  the  company  he  might  be  in;  could  sit 
at  the  piano  and  cleverly  expand  a  verbal  joke  against 
somebody  present  into  a  burlesque  opera,  and  pass  on  to 
practical  jokes  in  the  small  hours  of  the  morning.  He 
held  an  office  in  the  Mauritius  from  1813  to  1818.  I  lis 
deputy  there  embezzled  £12,000  of  public  money,  for 
which  Hook  was  responsible.  Then  came  some  little 
experience  of  imprisonment  for  debt ;  then  followed  jour- 
nalism, and  novel  writing.  When  the  "John  Bull "  was 
set  up  to  advocate  Tory  policy,  in  1821,  Theodore  I  look 
was  its  guiding  spirit,  and  by  fun  and  audacity,  with  little 
or  no  restraint  of  good  taste,  he  made  his  party  warfare 
pleasant  to  the  public  of  that  day.  lie  began  to  write 
stories  in  1824,  with  "Sayings  and  Doings."  His  best 
novels  are  " Jack  Brag"  and  "Gilbert  Gurney"  (1836- 
37).  He  was  editing  "the  New  Monthly  Magazine  "  at 
the  beginning  of  the  present  reign. 

Theodore  Hook's  life  was  written,  and  published  in  1848, 
by  his  friend  Richard  Harris  Bar  ham,  who  wrote  in  playful 
irregular  rhyme,  under  the  name  of  Thomas  Ingoldsby, 
"  the  Ingoldsby  Legends."  Barham  was  born  at  Canter- 
bury in  178'.»,  and  died  in  June  1845.  When  five  or  six 
years  old  he  inherited  the  estate  and  manor  house  of 
Sappington.  When  a  boy  at  St.  Paul's  school  he  was  up- 
set in  the  Dover  mail,  and  had  his  right  arm  shattered,  so 


IN  THE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  223 

that  it  was  crippled  for  life.  In  later  years  he  was  thrown 
from  a  gig  and  had  a  leg  broken.  Another  time  he  dam- 
aged one  of  his  eyes.  After  graduating  al  Oxford  he  took 
orders,  and  became  a  minor  canon  of  St.  Paul's  and  rector 

of  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Faith's  in  the  Cit\  ol'  London. 
He  unite  in  " Blackwood's  Magazine,"  in  the  "Edinburgh 
Review,"  and  other  journals,  and  contributed  to  a  Bio- 
graphical Dictionary.  In  January  1837  Richard  Bentley 
published  the  first  number  of  "Bentley's  Miscellany" 
with  Charles  Dickens,  in  the  first  flush  of  his  fame,  writ- 
ing "Oliver  Twist"  in  it,  and  a  strong  company  of  lively 
writers  to  support  him.  Barham  was  among  their  [lumber, 
and  his  contributions  of  a  series  of  burlesque  legends  in 
free  and  lively  rhyme  were  first  collected  into  a  volume 
as  "the  Ingoldsby  Legends"  in  1840.  The  quick  play  of 
fancy,  the  odd  turns  of  rhyme,  the  capital  illustrations  by 
George  Cruikshank  to  which  they  were  wedded,  and  the 
wholesome  spirit  of  good  humour  that  runs  through  all, 
have  made  "the  Ingoldsby  Legends"  a  book  about  which 
leaders  have  not  ceased  to  care.  Richard  Barham  pub-1 
lished  also  a  novel  in  1841,  "My  Cousin  Nicholas,"  which 
had  been  contributed  in  sections  to  "Bentley's  Miscel- 
lany." 

William  Maginn, —  Dr.  Maginn,  —  was  born  at  Cork  in 
1793  and  died  in  1842.  lie  was  educated  at  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Dublin,  and  turned  to  account  good  scholarship  in 
ancient  and  modern  languages  in  his  lively  work  as  a 
journalist  who  had  a  hearty  relish  for  true  literature  and 
fought  stoutly  for  Church  and  State.  Ue  was  one  of  the 
vigorous  band  of  writers  for  "Fraser's  Magazine  "  in  the 
days  when  its  publisher  dared  to  print  Carlyle's  "Sartor 
Resartus."      Maginn's   series   of    papers    contributed   to 


224  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"  Fraser  "  in  1834  as  the  "  Reliques  of  Father  Prout,  late 
P.P.  of  Watergrasshill  in  the  County  of  Cork,  Ireland," 
illustrated  with  etchings  by  young  Maclise,  were  first  col- 
lected into  a  book  in  1836.  A  new  edition  of  it,  edited 
by  a  still  surviving  comrade,  was  published  in  1860  in 
"Bonn's  Illustrated  Library,"  with  the  etchings.  It  re- 
produced also  the  sketch  by  Maclise  of  Maginn  addressing 
his  fellow  contributors  after  a  dinner  at  212  Regent  Street, 
the  sketch  giving  more  than  two  dozen  portraits  of  men 
of  mark.  Theodore  Hook's  face,  coarsely  good-humoured, 
is  between  Lockhart's,  refined  and  calmly  self-possessed, 
and  Brewster's,  thoughtful.  Over  the  heads  of  Brewster 
and  David  Macbeth  Moir,  who,  under  the  signature  of 
"  Delta,"  was  especially  known  as  the  poet  of  Blackwood, 
rises  the  young  head  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  with  shaggy  hair, 
hollow  cheeks,  and  a  kindly  play  of  amusement  about  the 
mouth,  for  Maginn  is  speaking.  Young  Thackeray  is  on 
the  other  side  of  the  table,  drawing  all  his  face  into  his 
eyeglass  in  the  endeavour  to  see  somebody.  Ainsworth 
also  is  there  as  a  serene  and  handsome  youth.  His  profile 
is  set  as  a  foil  by  the  full  face  of  Coleridge,  who,  with 
great  round  eyes,  suggests  the  meditative  owl.  In  Ma- 
gum's  "Reliques,"  the  Watergrasshill  Carousal  has  its 
own  life,  though  its  form  was  suggested  by  John  Wilson's 
"Noctes  Ambrosianse."  The  poet's  love  of  nature  that 
inspires  many  a  fine  passage  in  the  "  Noctes  "  is  replaced 
in  the  *  Reliques  of  Father  Prout "  by  a  skill  in  comic 
rhymes,  kindred  to  those  of  "  Thomas  Ingoldsby,"  and  by 
a  knack  at  turning  verse  out  of  one  language  into  another, 
in  which  Dr.  Maginn  had  no  equal.  One  of  his  papers 
on  "  The  Rogueries  of  Tom  Moore  "  is  said  to  have,  for  a 
time,  afflicted  Moore  himself,  who  thought  that  he  was 


JJV  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  225 

really  accused,  or  that  the  world  might  suppose  him  to  be 

accused,  of  taking  his  songs  out  of  the  French  and  Latin. 

Of  "  Go  where  Glory  waits  thee  "  he  was  told  that  it  was 

really  written  by  the  Comtesse  de  Chateaubriand,  who  was 

born  in  1491,  and  that  the  original  referred  to  the  battle 

of    Pavia ;    the    "  original "    being    Maginn's   version    of 

Moore's  song  into  French.     In  "Lesbia  hath  a  beaming 

eye,"    "  Tommy "  was  accused  of  having  stolen  a   piece 

from  the  Latin,  and  the  Latin  was  in  like  manner,  given 

in  evidence, 

Lesbia  semper  hinc  et  inde 

Oculorum  tela  movit ; 

Captat  omnes,  sed  deinde 

Quia  anietur  nemo  novit; 

and  so  to  the  end. 

Samuel  Lover,  a  lively  writer  of  Irish  stories,  was  born 

in  Dublin  in  1797,  son  of  a  stockbroker.     He  began  life 

as  a  miniature  painter  and,  in  1828,  became  a  member  of 

the  Royal  Hibernian  Academy,  of  which  he   afterwards 

was  secretary.     While  succeeding  as  a  portrait  painter,  he 

wrote  in  a  magazine  a  series  of  "  Legends  and  Stories 

illustrative  of  Irish  Character,"  published  in  1832.     This 

was  followed  in  1833   by  "  Popular  Tales  and   Legends 

of  the  Irish  Peasantry,"  and  in  1834  by  a  second  series  of 

"Legends  and  Stories  of  Ireland."     At  the  beginning  of 

the  reign  of  Victoria,  Samuel  Lover  came  to  London  and 

gradually  gave  up  the  pencil  for  the  pen.     He  wrote  for 

magazines,  produced  a  series  of  Irish  songs  which  were 

set  to  music  by  himself  and  of  which  some,  as  "  Rory 

O'More  "  and  "  Molly  Bawn"were  very  popular.     They 

formed,  in  1839,  a  volume  of  "  Songs  and  Ballads."     To 

successive    numbers    of  "  Bentley's    Miscellany "   Samuel 

Lover   contributed,  in   1842-3,  a   novel   called  "  Handy 


226  OF  ENGLISII  LITERATURE 

Andy,"  having  Irish  blunders  for  its  matter  of  amuse- 
ment. He  wrote  also  musical  dramas,  as  "  Rory  O'More  " 
and  "  the  White  Horse  of  the  Peppers,"  and  in  the  latter 
part  of  his  life  followed  the  example  of  Albert  Smith  in 
setting  up  a  popular  entertainment.  Albert  Smith,  a 
clever  writer  of  gay  trifles,  achieved  very  great  success  as 
a  comic  showman  of  Mont  Blanc  in  Piccadilly.  Samuel 
Lover,  also  depending  wholly  on  himself,  gave  "  Irish 
Evenings "  enlivened  with  songs  and  music  of  his  own. 
In  1848  he  carried  his  "  Irish  Evenings  "  to  America,  and 
made  on  his  return  a  new  entertainment  out  of  his  ad- 
ventures there.  He  obtained  a  small  civil-list  pension 
towards  the  close  of  his  life,  and  died  in  July  1868. 

Thomas  Crofton  Croker,  who  was  a  year  younger  than 
Samuel  Lover  and  died  in  1854,  was  another  illustrator  of 
Irish  song  and  story.  He  was  born  in  Cork,  and  was  at 
first  put  into  a  counting  house,  but  he  had  artistic  skill, 
was  clever  with  the  pencil,  though  he  did  not,  like  Lover, 
become  painter  by  profession,  and  he  had  literary  tastes 
that  fastened  upon  legends  and  antiquities  of  Ireland. 
He  obtained  a  clerkship  in  the  Admiralty,  which  brought 
him  to  London.  There  he  became  known  as  a  genial 
Irish  antiquary.  In  1825  he  published  "  Fairy  Legends 
and  Traditions  of  the  South  of  Ireland,"  and  in  1839 
"  the  Popular  Songs  of  Ireland,  collected  and  edited  with 
Introductions  and  Notes."  He  had  planned  he  says  "a 
series  of  songs,  which  would  have  told  the  history  of  Ire- 
land from  the  battle  of  the  Boyne  to  the  present  time,  in 
a  novel,  impartial,  and,  according  to  my  view,  interesting 
and  instructive  form."  But  that  would  have  extended  to 
three  or  four  volumes,  and  the  publisher's  faith  in  the 
public  intelligence  did  not  warrant  more  than  one  volume 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  227 

of  popular  songs.  Mr.  Crofton  Croker  quoted  in  his 
preface  an  Irishman's  view  of  the  drawing-room  conven- 
tionality of  Moore's  Melodies.  "  It  has  often  struck  me 
with  astonishment,"  said  this  critic,  "  that  the  people  of 
Ireland  should  have  so  tamely  submitted  to  Mr.  Thomas 
Moore's  audacity  in  prefixing  the  title  of  '  Irish '  to  his 
'Melodies.'  That  the  tunes  are  Irish,  I  admit;  but  as 
for  the  songs,  they  in  general  have  as  much  to  do  with 
Ireland  as  with  Nova  Scotia.  What  an  Irish  affair,  for 
example,  '  Go  where  glory  waits  thee,'  etc.  Might  it  not 
have  been  sung  by  a  cheesemonger's  daughter  of  High 
Holborn,  when  her  master's  apprentice  was  going,  in  a  fit 
of  valour,  to  list  himself  in  the  third  Buffs,  or  by  any 
other  amatory  person  as  well  as  a  Hibernian  Virgin? 
And  if  so,  where  is  the  Irishism  of  the  thing  at  all? 
Again, 

'  When  in  death  I  shall  calmly  recline, 
O  bear  my  heart  to  my  mistress  dear ; 
Tell  her  it  lived  upon  smiles  and  wine '  — 

Tell  her  it  lived  upon  fiddlesticks !  pretty  food  for  '  an 
Irishman's  heart  for  the  ladies ' !  .  .  .  Allusions  to  our 
localities,  it  is  true,  we  sometimes  meet  with,  as  thinly 
scattered  as  plums  in  the  holiday  puddings  of  a  Yorkshire 
boarding  school,  and  scattered  for  the  same  reason — just 
to  save  appearances,  and  give  a  title  to  the  assumed  name. 
There's  'the  Vale  of  Avoca,'  for  instance,  a  song  upon  a 
valley  in  Wicklow,  but  which  would  suit  any  other  valley 
in  the  world,  provided  it  had  three  syllables,  and  the 
middle  one  of  due  length."  This  critic  would  have  found 
as  much  Irishism  or  more,  in  English  George  Colman's 
notion  of  an  Irish  song : 


228  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"  Crest  of  the  O'Shaughnashane  1 

That's  a  potato  plain, 
Long  may  your  root  every  Irishman  know ! 

Pats  long  have  stuck  to  it, 

Long  bid  good  luck  to  it ; 
Whack  for  O'Shaughnashane  !     Tooley  whagg  ho  1 " 

William  Carleton,  another  Irish  writer,  was  of  the  same 
age  as  Crofton  Croker.  He  was  born  in  1798,  the  son  of 
a  small  farmer  at  Clogher,  county  Tyrone.  He  was 
trained  as  a  priest,  but  turned  writer,  and,  in  1830,  pub- 
lished "  Traits  and  Stories  of  the  Irish  Peasantry."  They 
were  followed  by  a  second  series  in  1832,  at  the  time 
when  Samuel  Lover  was  producing  his  "  Legends  and 
Stories  of  Ireland."  Such  books  at  such  a  time  aided  the 
movement  towards  a  quickening  of  general  intelligence, 
by  seeking  to  bring  Englishmen  and  Irishmen  nearer 
together.  They  helped  thousands  of  readers  to  a  kindly 
understanding  of  the  Irish  character.  Carleton  was  after- 
wards an  active  writer  of  Irish  tales.  In  1841  he  pub- 
lished "  the  Fawn  of  Spring  Vale,"  "  the  Clarionet "  and 
other  Tales;  in  1845  "Valentine  McClutchy,  the  Irish 
Agent;"  in  1847  "Art  Maguire ; "  in  1852  "Red  Hall,' 
"  the  Squanders  of  Castle  Squander,"  "  Jane  Sinclair " 
and  other  Tales;  in  1855  "Willy  Reilly;"  and  "the 
Black  Baronet "  in  1858.  William  Carleton  received  a 
literary  pension  of  <£200,  and  after  his  death  in  January 
1869,  a  pension  of  <£100  was  granted  to  his  widow. 

George  Robert  Gleig,  the  son  of  a  Scotch  bishop,  was 
born  in  1796,  educated  at  Glasgow  and  Oxford,  and  in- 
tended for  the  church.  Natural  inclination  drew  him  to 
a  soldier's  life.  He  entered  the  army  in  1812,  and  was 
with  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  the  Peninsula.     After 


IN   THE  BEIGN  OF   VICTORIA.  229 

other  service  with  the  army  he  returned  to  Oxford,  com- 
pleted his  studies,  and  in  1822  obtained  a  curacy,  from 
which  he  was  advanced  to  the  rectory  of  Ivy-church  in 
Kent.  His  experience  in  the  Peninsula  furnished  matter 
for  his  first  successful  book,  "  The  Subaltern, "  in  1825. 
Besides  published  Sermons,  and  a  History  of  the  Bible, 
in  1830,  followed  by  a  "  Historj^  of  the  British  Empire  in 
India,"  he  produced  in  1837  a  Life  of  Monro ;  in  1840  a 
Life  of  Warren  Hastings ;  in  1848  a  Life  of  Clive ;  the 
Story  of  Waterloo  in  1847,  and  in  1858  an  adaptation  of 
Brialmont's  Life  of  Wellington.  Among  Mr.  Gleig's 
popular  books  there  have  been  "  Chelsea  Pensioners  "  in 
1829;  "Allan  Breck,"  a  novel,  in  1834;  "Chelsea  Hos- 
pital" in  1837;  "the  Only  Daughter"  in  1839.  In  1844 
he  was  made  Chaplain  to  Chelsea  Hospital,  and  in  1846 
Chaplain  General  to  the  Forces.  Having  been  appointed 
Inspector  General  of  Military  Schools  he  established  and 
edited,  in  1850,  a  series  of  School  books.  In  1851  ap- 
peared his  "Light  Dragoon."  In  1856  Mr.  Gleig  edited 
a  book  on  "  Religion  in  the  Ranks."  Among  writers  of 
the  reign  of  Victoria,  Mr.  Gleig  is  the  one  who  has  done 
most  to  associate  in  the  public  mind  the  nobler  strain  of 
life  with  the  profession  of  a  soldier. 

Of  wars  between  France  and  England  before  Waterloo, 
Sir  Archibald  Alison  gave,  from  his  own  strongly  Tory 
point  of  view,  an  account  in  his  "  History  of  Europe  from 
the  Commencement  of  the  French  Revolution  in  1789  to 
the  Restoration  of  the  Bourbons  in  1815."  This  work, 
which  extended  over  ten  volumes,  was  in  course  of  publi- 
cation at  the  beginning  of  the  Reign  of  Victoria.  It  was 
completed  in  1842.  In  1847-9  there  was  a  seventh  edition 
of  it,  in  20  volumes  post  8vo,  and  between  1852  and  1859 


230  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

its  author  produced  a  continuation  of  the  history  from 
1815  to  1852,  the  continuation  occupying  eight  more  vol- 
umes. Sir  Archibald  published  also  in  1847  "  The  Mili- 
tary Life  of  John,  Duke  of  Marlborough  ;  "  in  1850  three 
volumes  of  Essays,  Political,  Historical,  and  Miscellaneous, 
which  first  appeared  in  Blackwood's  Magazine,  and,  in 
1861,  "  Lives  of  Lord  Castlereagh  and  Charles  Stewart, 
Marquesses  of  Londonderry,"  in  three  volumes ;  besides 
other  books.  This  voluminous  writer  was  the  son  of  a 
Rev.  Archibald  Alison,  who  died  in  1839,  and  who  had 
written  in  1812  what  was  in  its  day  an  admired  "  Essay 
on  the  Nature  and  Principles  of  Taste."  Archibald  the 
younger  was  born  in  1792,  and  educated  at  Edinburgh  for 
the  Scottish  bar,  to  which  he  was  called  in  1814.  He 
obtained  official  appointments,  was  elected  Rector  of  Mari- 
schal  College  in  1845,  and  in  1851  obtained  the  like 
honour  from  the  University  of  Glasgow.  In  1852  he  ob- 
tained a  baronetcy,  and  in  1853  the  honorary  degree  of 
D.C.L.  from  the  University  of  Oxford.  He  died  in  May 
1867.  Alison,  as  a  historian  was  one  of  the  last  of  the 
school  of  writers  who  told  a  piece  of  history  through, 
according  to  their  bias  of  opinion,  with  some  generaliza- 
tion, little  or  no  original  research,  and  superstitious  belief 
in  a  way  of  writing  that  was  once  supposed  to  befit  the 
dignity  of  the  historian.  His  book  covers  one  of  the  most 
important  periods  in  human  history,  and  has  its  use.  His 
facts  are  arranged  in  a  clear  sequence,  and  fully  set  forth, 
although  they  are  diffusely  told  by  an  interpreter  without 
any  conception  of  their  meaning. 

Sir  Francis  Palgrave  represents  in  his  life's  labour  the 
advance  towards  a  later  school  of  historians,  who  lay  stress 
upon  the  importance  of  a  constant  trial  of  asserted  facts 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  231 

by  search  into  the  evidence  on  which  they  rest.  He  was 
born  in  1788,  of  a  rich  Jewish  family,  and  his  name  was 
Francis  Cohen  until  the  age  of  35,  when  he  married  and 
took  the  maiden  name  of  his  wife's  mother.  He  was  acting 
then  as  a  solicitor,  but  four  years  after  his  marriage  he  Mas 
called  to  the  bar,  and  practised  chiefly  before  the  House 
of  Lords.  In  the  year  of  his  being  called  to  the  bar,  1827, 
he  published  a  work  on  Parliamentary  Writs.  In  1831 
he  produced  a  valuable  "History  of  England  during  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Period,"  followed  in  1832  by  a  "  History  of 
the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  English  Commonwealth 
during  the  Anglo-Saxon  period."  In  that  year  he  was 
knighted.  Between  1830  and  1837,  Sir  Francis  Palgrave 
produced  ten  volumes  of  the  publications  of  the  Record 
Commission,  and  in  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  Victoria, 
in  1838,  he  was  appointed  Deputy  Keeper  of  the  Records. 
He  published  also  in  1837  a  picture  of  the  Middle  Ages 
with  Marco  Polo  and  Roger  Bacon  in  the  foreground  as 
"  Truths  and  Fictions  of  the  Middle  Ages :  The  Merchant 
and  the  Friar."  In  1851  Sir  Francis  Palgrave  published 
the  first  of  the  four  volumes  of  a  "  History  of  Normandy 
and  England."  The  second  volume  followed  in  1857. 
The  third  and  fourth,  completed  from  his  papers  after  his 
death  in  July  1861,  brought  the  history  to  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  William  Rufus.  This  section  was  published  in 
1864. 

Two  sons  of  Sir  Francis  Palgrave  have  distinguished 
themselves  as  writers.  Francis  Turner  Palgrave,  born  in 
1824,  and  educated  at  the  Charterhouse  and  Baliol  College, 
Oxford,  was  for  five  years  Vice-Principal  of  a  Training 
CoHege  for  schoolmasters.  He  was  afterwards  for  a  few 
years  private  secretary  to  Lord  Granville  and  is  now  one 


232  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  the  three  Assistant  Secretaries  of  the  Committee  of 
Council  on  Education.  Mr.  F.  T.  Palgrave  has  proved 
himself  a  graceful  poet  and  a  refined  critic.  He  published 
"  Idylls  and  Songs  "  in  1854,  and  has  made  two  choice  col- 
lections from  the  English  poets,  one  called  "  The  Golden 
Treasury  of  English  Songs,"  published  in  1861,  the  other 
a  "  Children's  Treasury  of  Lyrical  Poetry,"  published  in 
1877.  In  the  same  year,  1877,  he  edited  a  selection  from 
the  poems  of  Herrick.  He  has  also  aided  in  the  refining 
of  the  public  taste  for  art ;  was  editor  of  the  Art  Cata- 
logue of  the  Great  Exhibition  of  1862,  and  published 
Essays  on  Art  in  1866. 

William  Gifford  Palgrave,  second  son  of  Sir  Francis, 
born  in  1826,  and,  like  his  brother,  educated  at  the 
Charterhouse  and  at  Oxford,  served  for  a  short  time  as 
lieutenant  in  the  Bombay  Native  Infantry.  But  he  joined 
the  Order  of  the  Jesuits  and  became  one  of  its  missiona- 
ries in  Syria  and  Palestine.  In  1865  he  published  a  very 
interesting  "  Narrative  of  a  Year's  Journey  through  Cen- 
tral and  Eastern  Arabia  "  made  in  1862-63.  The  journey 
was  one  of  exploration  undertaken  for  Napoleon  III. 
Since  the  explorer  could  speak  Arabic  like  a  native,  he 
travelled  as  a  native,  with  elaboration  of  disguise  not  only 
for  the  more  safety  but  also  as  a  way  to  secure  closer 
observation. 

Returning  to  the  men  who  were  of  like  age  with  Sir 
Francis  Palgrave,  we  find  one  of  them,  John  Payne  Collier, 
who  is,  in  1881,  the  patriarch  of  living  English  writers, 
drawing  towards  the  close  of  his  ninety -third  year.  Born 
in  January  1789,  he  was  but  a  year  younger  than  Byron, 
and  three  years  older  than  Shelley.  His  father  was  in  the 
service  of  "  the  Times  "  newspaper  and  he  began  the  world 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  233 

as  a  reporter,  at  the  same  time  securing  a  call  to  the  bar 
in  the  Middle  Temple.  His  interest  in  the  old  English 
dramatists  was  shown  by  his  first  work,  "  the  Poetical 
Decameron,"  published  in  1820.  In  1825  he  produced  a 
new  edition  of  Dodsley's  Old  Plays  with  addition  to  their 
number,  and  in  1831  he  published,  in  three  volumes,  a 
"History  of  Dramatic  Poetry,"  in  which  he  laid  broader 
and  deeper  foundations  for  a  study  of  the  English  Drama 
than  had  been  laid  by  any  man  before  him.  He  found 
in  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  a  liberal  friend.  In  1835  he 
founded,  partly  upon  documents  in  the  library  of  Lord 
Ellesmere,  of  which  some  have  since  been  considered 
forgeries,  a  record  of  "  New  Facts  regarding  the  Life  of 
Shakespeare."  This  was  followed  in  1836  by  "  New  Par- 
ticulars "  in  a  letter  to  Alexander  Dyce,  and  "  Further 
Particulars  "  in  1839.  At  this  time  Mr.  Collier  began  to 
produce  little  privately  printed  editions  of  rare  tracts  and 
poems,  a  very  small  number  of  copies  of  each,  often  not 
more  than  25,  being  printed.  In  1842  he  produced  his 
Library  edition  of  the  works  of  Shakespeare,  its  successive 
volumes  coming  before  the  public  side  by  side  with  those 
of  the  Library  edition  by  Charles  Knight.  A  second 
revised  edition  of  Mr.  Collier's  Shakespeare  followed  in 
1858.  This  had  to  take  account  of  the  corrections  in  a 
volume  that  had  become  famous  as  "  the  Perkins  Folio." 
In  the  spring  of  1849  Mr.  Collier  bought,  he  said,  from 
Mr.  Rodd,  a  dealer  in  old  books,  for  thirty  shillings  a  copy 
of  the  second  folio  of  Shakespeare  (1632),  which,  whin 
bought,  was  put  upon  an  upper-shelf  and  neglected,  until 
he  discovered  and,  in  May  1852,  first  published  the  fact, 
that  this  old  folio  abounded  in  marginal  corrections,  and 
that   they  were   in    a   contemporary   handwriting.      The 


234  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

handwriting  was  supposed  to  be  that  of  a  Thomas  Perkins, 
whose  name  was  written  in  the  volume,  and  whose  correc- 
tions might  have  been  based  upon  actual  knowledge  of 
the  text.  The  "  Corrected  Folio,',  as  it  is  now  termed, 
became  a  subject  of  warm  controversy.  It  was  then  placed 
on  view,  in  1859,  in  the  MS.  department  of  the  British 
Museum,  where  any  student  might  examine  it  for  himself. 
When  first  spoken  of,  it  had  been  shown  at  the  Society  of 
Antiquaries;  but  when  the  volume,  having  fallen  into 
suspicion,  was  exposed  to  closer  scrutiny,  it  lost  authority. 
It  was  evident  that  the  old  writing  had  been  carefully 
imitated  over  pencillings  of  the  words  to  be  engrossed,  the 
pencillings  being  in  a  modern  running  hand  which  was  here 
and  there  to  be  seen  under  the  ink.  There  was  nothing 
left  to  be  said  or  thought  about  the  Perkins  folio  by  any 
temperate  student  but  to  warn  others  of  its  worthlessness 
and  regret  that  Mr.  Collier  should  have  been  again  misled. 
Whose  time  was  wasted  on  the  manufacture  of  the  notes 
we  do  not  want  to  know.  When  Englishmen  had  in  their 
own  Literature  an  unknown  world  to  explore,  John  Pavne 
Collier  was  one  of  the  few  who  led  the  first  bands  of  the 
pioneers.  Much  of  what  younger  men  repeat  by  rote,  it 
was  he  who  found.  He  taught  it  to  their  grandfathers 
and  fathers.  He  has  done  his  part  towards  bringing 
many  out  of  darkness  into  light,  and  for  the  stumble  here 
and  there,  who  is  it  that  never  stumbles?  In  1880  Mr. 
Collier  produced  in  three  substantial  volumes  a  second 
edition  of  his  "  History  of  Dramatic  Poetry,"  embodying 
all  notes  of  correction  and  addition  that  he  had  made 
during  the  interval  of  nearly  half  a  century  since  the  first 
issue  of  the  book. 

If  we  turn  now  to  the  Literature  of  Science  we  find 


I2V   TUE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  235 

within  this  group  of  the  men  born  in  the  same  decade  Sir 
Roderick  Murchison  and  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  the  two  fore- 
most geologists  of  their  time.  Roderick  Impey  Murchison 
was  born  in  Ross-shire,  the  son  of  Kenneth  Murchison  of 
Tarradale,  in  1792.  He  was  educated  for  the  army,  and 
saw  service  in  the  Peninsular  war,  as  an  officer  in  the  3Gth 
Foot,  in  1808-9.  He  was  afterwards  on  the  staff  of  his 
uncle,  General  Sir  Alexander  Mackenzie,  and  then  Cap- 
tain in  the  6th  Dragoons.  He  left  the  army  in  1814, 
married  in  1815,  hunted,  travelled,  and  began  his  active 
studies  of  geology.  In  1825  he  was  elected  Fellow  of  the 
Geological  Society.  In  1827  he  studied  the  older  strata 
in  the  Highlands  with  Professor  Sedgwick,  and  began  a 
course  of  investigation  which  he  continued  systematically 
in  England  and  Wales  after  1831.  This  led  to  his  use  in 
1835  of  the  term  "  Silurian,"  to  characterize  a  great  natu- 
ral system  of  ancient  deposits  which  had  not  before  been 
classified,  and  the  type  of  which  was  found  in  Siluria,  or 
the  country  of  Caractacus  and  the  old  Britons  known  as 
the  Silures.  Murchison  completed  in  1838,  and  published 
in  1839,  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Victoria,  his  great 
work  on  "  the  Silurian  System,"  dedicated  to  his  fellow 
labourer  Professor  Adam  Sedgwick.  Sedgwick,  who  was 
about  six  years  older  than  Murchison,  held  for  more  than 
fifty  years  the  chair  of  Geology  founded  at  Cambridge  by 
Dr.  John  Woodward.  Sedgwick  lived  to  the  age  of  87, 
dying  in  January  1873  ;  Murchison  lived  to  the  age  of  79, 
dying  in  October  1871.  Murchison's  researches  as  a  geol- 
ogist extended  over  many  parts  of  Europe.  He  directed 
a  geological  Survey  of  Russia  for  the  Czar  Nicholas,  and 
published,  in  1845,  the  "  Geology  of  Russia  and  the  Ural 
Mountains."     At  this  time  he  first  pointed  out  that  gold 


236  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

would  be  discovered  in  Australia,  and  he  urged  govern- 
ment action  three  years  before  the  gold  was  actually 
found.  In  1854  he  published  "  Siluria.  A  History  of 
the  Oldest  Rocks  in  the  British  Isles  and  other  Coun- 
tries." The  fourth  edition  of  this  book,  produced  in  1867, 
included  "the  Silurian  System"  and  much  new  matter. 
It  was  the  final  definition  of  the  chief  work  of  its  author's 
life.  He  was  knighted  after  his  return  from  Russia ;  he 
succeeded  Sir  Henry  De  La  Beche  in  1855  as  Director 
General  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  the  British  Isles ;  in 
1863  he  was  made  Knight  Commander  of  the  Bath,  and 
in  1866  a  baronet.  Four  years  after  his  death  there  ap- 
peared a  Memoir  of  his  life  and  labours,  with  a  sketch  of 
the  rise  and  progress  of  Palaeozoic  Geology  in  Britain,  by 
Dr.  Archibald  Geikie,  who  then  was  and  still  is  Murchi- 
son  Professor  of  Geology  and  Mineralogy  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Edinburgh. 

Charles  Lyell,  five  years  younger  than  Murchison,  and 
also  a  Scot,  was  born  in  Forfarshire  in  1797,  eldest  son  of 
a  botanist  who  lived  at  Kinnordy.  He  was  educated  in 
Sussex,  at  the  Midhurst  Grammar  School,  and  afterwards 
at  Oxford,  where  he  took  his  M.A.  degree  in  1821.  He 
was  called  to  the  bar,  but,  having  private  means,  applied 
himself  to  the  study  of  Geology,  to  which  he  had  been 
drawn  by  the  lectures  of  William  Buckland,  then  reader 
in  Mineralogy  and  Geology  at  Oxford,  and  afterwards 
Dean  of  Westminster,  in  which  office  he  died  aged  72,  in 
1856.  In  1830,  1832  and  1833  Lyell  first  published  in 
three  volumes  his  "  Principles  of  Geology,"  a  book  of 
which  eleven  editions  appeared  in  his  life  time,  and  which 
has  done  more  than  any  single  book  to  give  impulse  to 
the  study  of  Geology,  by  tempering  all  its  details  with 


IN   TUE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  237 

philosophic  thought.  In  1845  Lyeii  published  geological 
investigations  in  the  New  World,  in  a  book  of  "  Travels 
in  North  America ;  "  followed  by  a  "  Second  Visit  to  the 
United  States,"  in  1848.  In  that  year  he  was  knighted, 
and  he  was  created  a  baronet  in  1864.  When  Mr.  Charles 
Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species"  appeared,  Lyell,  himself  apt 
at  scientific  generalization,  gave  close  attention  to  its  rea- 
soning, and  produced  in  1863,  as  the  result  of  his  study, 
a  book  proving  "  The  Antiquity  of  Man."  He  died  in 
1873. 

The  decade  produced  not  only  these  foremost  geolo- 
gists, but  also  a  great  chemist  in  Michael  Faraday,  who 
was  born  in  1791  and  died  in  1867  at  the  age  of  76.  He 
was  the  son  of  a  Yorkshire  blacksmith  who  had  settled  in 
London.  After  some  elementary  education  Faraday  was 
apprenticed,  at  thirteen,  to  a  bookseller  and  bookbinder. 
He  had  great  natural  genius,  of  which  the  bent  was 
towards  the  form  of  science  in  which  he  afterwards  ex- 
celled. As  a  boy  he  made  experiments  and  he  sought 
books  to  aid  him.  When  he  was  twenty-one  he  attended 
lectures  given  by  Sir  Humphry  Davy  at  the  Royal  Insti- 
tution, sent  Davy  his  notes,  and  sought  his  aid  to  an 
escape  from  trade.  Sir  Humphry  Davy  became  inter- 
ested in  him,  and  made  him,  in  1813,  an  assistant  in  the 
laboratory  of  the  Royal  Institution.  Five  years  later 
Faraday  began  to  show  results  of  work.  In  1824  he 
married.  In  1825  he  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society.  In  1827  he  published  a  treatise  on  "  Chemical 
Manipulation."  In  1830  he  began  to  contribute  to  the 
Royal  Society  accounts  of  his  discoveries  in  magnetism 
and  electricity.  He  had  then  been  appointed  Lecturer 
on  Chemistry  at  the  Royal  Military  Academy  Woolwich. 


238  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

In  1830  Charles  Babbage,  a  famous  mathematician,  who 
was  born  in  the  same  year  as  Faraday  and  died  in  1871, 
published  "Reflections  on  the  Decline  of  Science  in  Eng- 
land." In  1831  Faraday  edited  "  a  Foreigner  on  the 
alleged  Decline  of  Science."  In  1832,  and  again  in  1838, 
the  Copley  Medal  of  the  Royal  Society  was  awarded  to 
him  for  his  discoveries.  In  1833  he  became  Professor  of 
Chemistry  to  the  Royal  Institution  with  which  he  had 
been,  and  was  afterwards,  associated  during  his  whole 
scientific  life.  In  1835  his  services  obtained  from  the 
state  a  pension  of  X300  a  year.  A  volume  of  his  "Experi- 
mental Researches  "  was  published  in  1839;  a  second  in 
1844;  a  third  in  1855;  a  fourth  in  1859.  In  1858  the 
Queen  allotted  to  him  rooms  at  Hampton  Court.  Hon- 
ours were  showered  upon  him,  but  he  retained  through- 
out life  the  simplicity  of  the  true  student  of  nature.  He 
was  deeply  but  unaffectedly  religious,  with  an  open  kind- 
liness, and  childlike  in  his  freedom  from  the  outward  crust 
that  forms  on  most  of  us  by  contact  with  the  world. 
One  of  the  most  refined  pleasures  in  London  was  to  hear 
Faraday  at  the  Royal  Institution  giving  Christmas  lec- 
tures to  an  audience  of  children.  The  last  of  such  courses 
published  was  on  "  the  Chemical  History  of  a  Candle,"  in 
1861,  the  year  in  which  decline  of  strength  caused  him  to 
resign  his  office  at  the  Royal  Institution. 

Science  applied  to  Philosophy  and  History  is  rep- 
resented in  the  group  of  writers  who  were  between  forty 
and  fifty  years  old  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign,  by  Sir 
William  Hamilton  and  George  Grote.  James  Mill,  the 
father  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  was  an  older  man,  who  died  a 
year  before  the  reign  began. 

Sir  William   Hamilton,  born  at  Glasgow  in  1788,  and 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  239 

educated  at  the  Universities  of  Glasgow  and  Oxford,  was 
called  to  the  Scottish  bar  at  the  age  of  twenty-five.  At 
the  age  of  thirty-three  he  became  Professor  of  Universal 
History  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  His  unsuccess- 
ful contest  with  John  Wilson  for  the  chair  of  Moral 
Philosophy  has  already  been  mentioned.  In  July  1836,  at 
the  age  of  forty-eight,  he  was  elected  at  Edinburgh  to  the 
chair  of  Logic  and  Metaphysics,  for  which  he  was  pecu- 
liarly qualified,  and  his  fame  then  began  to  spread  through 
Europe.  He  became  the  head  of  a  distinct  school  of 
Philosophy.  He  had  distinguished  himself  by  contribu- 
tions to  "the  Edinburgh  Review "  of  philosophical  arti- 
cles on  Cousin's  Philosophy,  in  1829;  on  Perception  in 
1830 ;  on  Logic  in  1833.  The  first  course  of  lectures 
given  by  him  in  the  Edinburgh  University  were  on  Meta- 
physics ;  each  lecture  being  usually  written  on  the  even- 
ing and  night  before  its  delivery.  In  that  way,  a  course 
of  three  lectures  a  week  extending  over  five  months,  was 
produced.  In  the  next  session,  1837-8,  a  course  of  Logic 
was  given,  and  most  of  the  Lectures  were  produced  in  the 
same  way.  These  courses  of  lectures,  each  occupying  two 
volumes,  were  published  after  Sir  William  Hamilton's 
death  edited  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Longueville  Mansel  of 
Oxford  and  Dr.  John  Veitch,  Professor  of  Logic  at  Glas- 
gow. The  lectures  on  Metaphysics  were  published  in 
1859,  and  those  on  Logic  in  1860.  The  greater  number 
of  the  footnotes  which  appeared  in  Sir  William  Hamil- 
ton's edition,  published  in  1847,  of  the  Works  of  Thomas 
Reid  were  written  at  the  time  when  he  was  first  deliver- 
ing his  lectures.  There  appeared  also  between  1854  and 
1860  an  edition  by  him  in  eleven  volumes  of  the  Works 
of  Dugald  Stewart.     Sir  William  Hamilton  continued  to 


240  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

lecture  until  his  death  in  1856.  "For  twenty  years," 
say  the  editors  of  his  lectures,  —  "  from  1836  to  1856  — 
the  Courses  of  Logic  and  Metaphysics  were  the  means 
through  which  Sir  William  Hamilton  sought  to  discipline, 
and  imbue  with  his  philosophical  opinions,  the  numerous 
youth  who  gathered  from  Scotland  and  other  countries  to 
his  classroom ;  and  while  by  these  prelections  the  author 
supplemented,  developed  and  moulded  the  Rational  Philos- 
ophy,—leaving  thereon  the  ineffaceable  impress  of  his 
genius  and  learning  —  he,  at  the  same  time  and  by  the 
same  means,  exercised  over  the  intellects  and  feelings  of 
his  pupils  an  influence  which,  for  depth,  intensity,  and 
elevation,  was  certainly  never  surpassed  by  that  of  any 
philosophical  instructor.  Among  his  pupils  there  are  not 
a  few  who,  having  lived  for  a  season  under  the  constrain- 
ing power  of  his  intellect,  and  been  led  to  reflect  on 
those  great  questions  regarding  the  character,  origin,  and 
bounds  of  human  knowledge,  which  his  teachings  stirred 
and  quickened,  bear  the  memory  of  their  beloved  and 
revered  instructor  inseparably  blended  with  what  is  high- 
est in  their  present  intellectual  life,  as  well  as  in  their 
practical  aims  and  aspirations."  Sir  William  Hamilton's 
essays,  chiefly  from  the  Edinburgh  Review,  were  pub- 
lished in  1852  as  "  Discussions  on  Philosophy,"  and  from 
these  the  majority  of  educated  readers  derive  their  impres- 
sions of  his  teaching.  His  philosophical  system  was  that 
of  a  Natural  Realist.  He  taught  that  every  fact  in  philos- 
ophy is  derived  from  direct  consciousness.  Philosophy  is 
only  a  scientific  development  of  the  facts  which  conscious- 
ness reveals.  The  endless  diversities  among  philosophers 
are  due,  he  said,  to  their  disposition  to  appeal  then  only 
to  consciousness  when  they  can  quote  it  in  support  of  prer 


IN   THE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  241 

conceived  opinions.  Naturally  taken,  it  is  an  unerring 
criterion.  But  philosophers  have  seldom  or  never  taken 
the  facts  of  consciousness,  the  whole  facts  of  conscious- 
ness, and  nothing  but  the  facts  of  consciousness.  They 
have  either  overlooked,  or  rejected,  or  interpolated.  No 
fact  is  to  be  taken  as  a  fact  of  consciousness  that  is  not 
ultimate  and  simple.  The  whole  fact  is  to  be  taken  with- 
out reserve,  and  nothing  but  the  fact.  Inferences  of  rea- 
soning are  to  be  regarded  as  subordinate  deductions,  and 
rejected  when  they  contradict  the  facts.  In  conscious- 
ness, he  also  taught,  there  is  a  Duality,  the  self  and  the 
outer  world,  the  ego  and  the  non-ego,  known  together  and 
known  in  contrast  to  each  other ;  mind  and  matter,  not 
only  given  together  but  in  absolute  coequality.  The  one 
does  not  precede,  the  other  does  not  follow  ;  and,  in  their 
mutual  relation,  each  is  equally  dependent,  ecpually  in- 
dependent. Those  who  accept  this  fact  in  its  integrity, 
Sir  William  Hamilton  called  Natural  Realists,  or  Natural 
Dualists.  But  he  said  that  nearly  all  modern  philosophers 
held  other  views. 

George  Grote  was  at  once  philosopher  and  historian. 
His  grandfather  was  a  merchant,  Andreas  Grote,  who 
came  over  from  Bremen  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century, 
and,  in  addition  to  a  prosperous  business  house  in  Leaden- 
hall  Street,  established  in  1766,  with  George  Prescott, 
the  banking  house  of  Grote  Prescott  and  Co.  in  Thread- 
needle  Street.  The  eldest  son  of  Andreas  Grote  by  a 
second  marriage  was  George  Grote,  the  father  of  the  his- 
torian. George  Grote,  the  historian,  was  born  in  Novem- 
ber 1794.  He  had  four  years  of  education  at  a  school  in 
Sevenoaks,  and  six  at  the  Charter  house,  before  his  father 
put  him,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  into  the  business  of  the 


242  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

bank.  He  studied  with  energy  in  leisure  hours,  was  up 
at  six  in  the  morning  to  read  philosophy  for  three  hours 
before  breakfast.  He  had  come  into  relation  with  James 
Mill,  who  not  only  strengthened  his  devotion  to  study, 
but  also  exercised  strong  influence  over  his  opinions. 
Grote  married  in  1820  and  began  housekeeping  next  door 
to  the  bank  in  Threadneedle  Street.  James  Mill  dined 
with  him  there  at  least  once  a  week,  and  a  band  of  ear- 
nest intellectual  workers  gathered  about  him.  There  were 
meetings  on  two  mornings  a  week  at  half  past  eight  for 
study  of  philosophy.  As  early  as  1823,  he  formed  the 
design  of  writing  a  History  of  Greece  and  began  to  col- 
lect notes  for  it.  In  the  following  years,  he  was  among 
those  workers  for  advance  of  unrestricted  education  who 
gave  the  most  effectual  aid  to  the  founding  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  London.  In  1830  George  Grote's  father  died. 
He  then  inherited  the  family  estate  in  Lincolnshire  and 
became  head  of  the  banking  house.  To  the  business  of 
the  bank  he  gave  strictest  attention,  while  the  critical 
condition  of  public  affairs  interested  him  deeply,  and  the 
"  History  of  Greece  "  grew  under  his  hand.  In  1832  his 
interest  in  Parliamentary  Reform,  Vote  by  Ballot,  Repeal 
of  the  Corn  Laws  and  of  Taxes  on  Knowledge,  Exten- 
sion of  Education,  and  other  great  questions  of  the  day, 
caused  him  to  offer  himself  as  candidate  at  the  elections, 
and  he  was  placed,  in  December,  at  the  head  of  the  poll 
in  the  election  of  members  for  the  City  of  London.  Pie 
then  removed  his  home  from  Threadneedle  Street.  In 
1835  he  was  re-elected  to  Parliament,  where  he  was  among 
the  chiefs  of  the  philosophical  Radical  section,  and  moved 
annually  for  vote  by  Ballot.  At  the  new  Election  after 
the  accession  of  Victoria,  he  was  elected  again,  by  a  small 


IN   THE  EEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  243 

majority  against  the  strongest  Tory  opposition.  After  the 
dissolution  in  1841  he  withdrew  from  parliamentary  life, 
and  in  March  1846  he  produced  the  first  two  volumes 
of  his  "  History  of  Greece,"  of  which  the  twelve  volumes 
appeared  during  the  course  of  the  ten  years  from  1846  to 
1856.  George  Grote  continued  his  Greek  studies  and, 
blending  with  them  his  studies  of  philosophy,  planned 
large  works  upon  Plato  and  Aristotle.  In  1860  he  pub- 
lished an  Essay  upon  Plato's  Doctrine  of  the  Revolution 
of  the  Earth,  and  in  1865  appeared  in  three  large  vol- 
umes his  study  of  "Plato,  and  other  Companions  of 
Socrates."  The  book  abounds  in  acute  analogies,  is  philo- 
sophical, but,  considering  the  subject,  drily  so.  The  old 
discipline  of  James  Mill  had  weakened  in  Grote  some  of 
the  faculties  required  for  apprehension  of  the  spiritual 
side  of  Plato.  He  published  in  1868  "  a  Review  of  John 
Stuart  Mill's  Examination  of  Sir  William  Hamilton's 
Philosophy,"  and  was  preparing  his  work  on  Aristotle 
when  he  died  in  1871.  The  fragment  of  his  Aristotle 
was  edited  after  his  death  by  his  friends  Professor  Alex- 
ander Bain  and  Professor  George  Croom  Robertson,  and 
published  in  1872.  George  Grote  was  successor  to  Lord 
Brougham  as  President  of  University  College,  and  Vice 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  London.  The  chief  Eng- 
lish historian  of  Greece,  the  acute  critic  of  Plato,  had 
taken  his  place  among  the  foremost  scholars  of  the  age, 
by  aptitude  of  mind  and  resolute  self-education  in  hours 
stolen  from  rest,  without  help  of  training  at  a  University, 
and  with  the  hindrances  of  a  commercial  life  about  him. 
In  personal  character  and  manner  Grote  was,  in  his  latter 
years,  the  type  of  the  best  form  of  oldfashioned  courtesy ; 
its  kindly  dignity  was  graced  by  a  sincerity  that  could  be 


244  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

felt  in  every  act  and  word.  To  the  College  over  which 
he  had  presided  he  bequeathed  endowment  for  a  chair  of 
Logic  and  Mental  Philosophy,  but  on  condition  that  it 
should  be  held  only  by  a  layman. 

John  Bowring,  born  at  Exeter  in  1792,  was  another  of 
the  young  friends  of  James  Mill.  He  was  especially  a 
friend  and  follower  of  Jeremy  Bentham,  of  whom  James 
Mill  was  the  leading  disciple.  When  Bentham  died,  in 
1832,  John  Bowring  was  his  literary  executor.  In  1823 
Jeremy  Bentham  resolved  to  establish  at  his  own  cost  a 
journal  that  should  make  head  against  the  Edinburgh  and 
Quarterly  Reviews  by  vigorous  expression  of  the  opinions 
of  that  body  of  thinkers  who  were  becoming  known  as 
philosophical  Radicals.  James  Mill  was  asked  to  edit  it ; 
but  he  declined  the  office  as  incompatible  with  his  appoint- 
ment in  the  India  House.  John  Bowring,  then  a  merchant 
in  the  city,  and  for  the  last  two  or  three  years  a  devoted 
follower  of  Bentham's,  undertook  to  be  editor.  While 
the  first  number  was  being  prepared,  partnership  was 
established  with  a  writer,  Henry  Southern,  who  was  at 
the  same  time  preparing  a  literary  Review,  to  be  published 
by  Longman.  The  two  projects  became  one,  and  "the 
Westminster  Review '"  was  started  under  the  two  editors ; 
John  Bu wring  taking  the  political,  Southern  the  literary 
department.  In  the  first  number  a  declaration  of  faith 
was  written  by  James  Mill,  in  the  form  of  an  analysis  of 
the  British  Constitution  from  the  Radical  point  of  view. 
He  argued  that  the  two  great  parties  in  the  state  repre- 
sented conflicts  of  opinion  between  two  sections  of  the 
governing  body,  and  that  such  conflicts  involved  no  essen- 
tial sacrifice  of  the  aristocratical  predominance.  He  illus- 
trated this  by  the  conduct  of  the  Whig  party  as  expressed 


IN  TUE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  245 

by  its  organ  "  the  Edinburgh  Review,"  from  which  he 
quoted  freely  in  support  of  his  assertion  that  it  coquetted 
with  popular  principles,  and  took  care  never  to  push  home 
any  argument  that  touched  the  power  or  interest  of  the 
governing  classes.  Because  of  this  article,  planned  as  the 
Radical's  definition  of  the  broad  line  by  which  he  was 
separated  from  the  Whig,  Longman,  as  publisher  of  "  the 
Edinburgh,"  refused  to  bring  out  "the  Westminster." 
James  Mill  then  went  to  his  own  publisher,  by  whom  the 
first  number  of  "  the  Westminster  Review  "  was  issued  in 
April  1824.  A  subsequent  article,  levelled  against  "  the 
Quarterly  Review,"  defined  the  line  of  separation  between 
followers  of  Bentham  and  the  Tories. 

Mr.  Bowring,  while  editing  "  the  Westminster  Review," 
still  continued  to  distinguish  himself  by  metrical  transla- 
tions from  languages  unknown  to  the  greater  number  of 
his  readers.  In  1821-3  he  began  with  two  volumes  of 
"  Specimens  of  Russian  Poetry,"  in  1824  followed  "  Bata- 
vian  Anthology,"  and  immediately  afterwards  "Ancient 
Poetry  and  Romances  of  Spain ;  "  in  1827  he  published 
"Specimens  of  Polish  Poets,"  in  1830  "Poetry  of  the 
Magyars  ;  "  in  1832  "  Bohemian  and  Cheskian  Anthology." 
In  the  reign  of  Victoria  his  characteristic  labour  was  to 
produce  an  edition,  in  eleven  volumes,  published  in  1838- 
41.  of  the  works  of  Jeremy  Bentham.  Mr.  Bowring  was 
in  Parliament,  except  a  four  years'  interval,  from  1835  to 
1849.  In  1849  he  became  British  Consul  at  Hong  Kong, 
and  Superintendent  of  Trade  in  China.  He  was  knighted 
after  his  return,  in  1853,  and  sent  out  again  as  Governor. 
He  held  also  other  diplomatic  offices  before  his  death  in 
1872  at  the  age  of  80.  In  1859  he  published  a  book  on 
"the  Kingdom  and  People  of  Siam."     In  18G6  he  went 


246  OF  ENGLISn  LITERATURE 

back  to  his  old  work  and  published  translations  from  the 
Hungarian  poet  Alexander  Petofi,  a  lover  of  freedom 
whose  first  songs  appeared  in  1843,  who  was  accepted  by 
the  Hungarians  as  a  national  poet,  and  in  the  contest 
against  Austria  and  Russia  went  into  the  battle  of  Sch ass- 
burg  in  July  1849.  He  was  then  only  twenty-six  years 
old.  After  the  battle  Petofi  was  not  to  be  found  either 
among  the  survivors  or  among  the  dead. 

A  song  writer  belongs  also  to  the  group  of  English 
authors  upon  whom  we  are  now  dwelling,  although  the 
times  happily  did  not  call  upon  him  for  war  songs.  Bryan 
Waller  Procter  was  born  in  1790.  He  was  educated  at 
Harrow,  and  made  law  his  profession.  In  the  years  1819- 
21  he  acquired  high  reputation  as  a  poet.  In  1819  he 
published  "  Dramatic  Scenes  and  other  Poems ; "  in  1820 
"A  Sicilian  Story  "and  "Marcian  Colonna."  In  January 
1821  a  tragedy  by  him,  "  Mirandola,"  was  produced  at 
Covent  Garden,  with  Charles  Kemble  and  Macready  in  its 
chief  parts.  The  second  act  had  been  first  written,  then 
the  first,  and  the  end  was  known ;  but  while  the  poet  was 
considering  how  to  fill  up  the  third  and  fourth  with  detail, 
his  friend  Macready  sketched  for  him  his  notion  of  dra- 
matic incident.  This  Procter  had  to  accept  and  work  out, 
subject  to  criticism  and  alteration.  "  Mirandola "  filled 
the  house  for  nine  nights  and  ran  another  seven,  during 
which  the  public  seceded  to  the  other  house  to  hear  the 
singing  of  a  lady  who  had  been  praised  by  George  IV. 
The  published  play  ran  quickly  through  three  editions. 
In  1822  Barry  Cornwall  maintained  credit  as  a  poet  with 
"the  Flood  of  Thessaly,"  and  his  Poetical  Works  were 
collected.  His  age  then  was  thirty-two.  In  1824  he  mar- 
ried, worked  at  law  to  support  his  family,  was  called  to 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  247 

the  bar,  and  afterwards  was  appointed  a  Commissioner  in 
Lunacy.  He  held  that  office  until  1861  and  died  in 
October  1874.  Bryan  Waller  Procter  used  as  author  a 
name  —  Barry  Cornwall  —  formed  by  anagram  from  his 
own,  without  the  second  syllable  of  Waller  and  the  P.  of 
his  surname.  The  volume  of  "English  Songs,"  by  which 
he  is  most  commonly  known,  was  first  published  in  1832. 
A  pleasant  little  pocket  edition  of  them  was  published  in 
1851,  with  pieces  added,  of  which  some  then  appeared  for 
the  first  time.  In  the  same  year  he  published  also  "  Essays 
and  Tales  in  Prose."  There  was  a  new  edition  also  of 
his  Poetical  Works  in  1853.  Procter's  last  work,  published 
in  1866,  when  he  was  seventy-six  years  old,  was  a  "  Memoir 
of  Charles  Lamb,"  whom  he  had  known  in  his  youth.  It 
was  a  short  memoir  written  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
that  Charles  Lamb's  life  answered  to  the  condition  ex- 
pressed by  Milton  when  he  said,  "  I  was  confirmed  in  this 
opinion  that  he  who  would  not  be  frustrate  of  his  hope  to 
write  well  hereafter  in  laudable  things,  ought  himself  to 
be  a  true  poem." 

One  of  the  daughters  of  Barry  Cornwall,  Adelaide 
Anne  Procter,  who  was  born  in  1824  and  died  in  1864, 
has  obtained  a  place  among  English  poetesses.  She  pub- 
lished in  1858  "  Legends  and  Lyrics,  a  Book  of  Verses," 
some  of  which  had  appeared  in  Charles  Dickens's  "  House- 
hold Words."  There  was  a  second  volume  of  "  Legends 
and  Lyrics "  published  in  1862,  two  years  before  their 
author's  death ;  and  after  her  death  the  "  Legends  and 
Lyrics  "  were  published  in  1868  with  a  memoir  by  Charles 
Dickens  of  her  short  life  of  earnest  thought  and  feeling. 

Another  poet  in  our  group  of  men  who  were  between 
forty  and  fifty  years  old  at  the  accession  of  Victoria  was 


248  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Henry  Hart  Milman ;  and  he,  like  Procter,  began  with 
success  as  a  poet  on  the  stage.  He  was  born  in  Februaiy 
1791,  the  youngest  son  of  a  baronet  who  was  physician  to 
George  III.  He  was  educated  at  Eton  and  Oxford.  In 
1812  he  obtained  at  Oxford  the  Newdigate  prize  for  an 
English  poem,  his  subject  being  "  the  Apollo  Belvidere." 
In  1815  he  obtained  a  Fellowship  at  his  College,  Brase- 
nose,  and  also  published  a  play,  called  "  Fazio."  In  1817 
he  was  appointed  Vicar  of  St.  Mary's  Reading.  In  1818 
he  published  a  religious  poem  in  twelve  books,  "  Samor, 
Lord  of  the  Bright  City."  In  1820  he  returned  to  dra- 
matic poetry,  and  published  "  the  Fall  of  Jerusalem,"  a 
play  interspersed  with  lyric  passages,  and  not  meant  for 
the  stage.  Its  poetical  view  of  the  accomplishment  of 
prophecy  and  of  the  great  features  of  the  Jewish  nation- 
ality suggests  a  fitness  in  the  sequence  when  the  writer 
who  sang  as  a  young  poet  "  the  Fall  of  Jerusalem,"  told 
in  after  }Tears  "  the  History  of  the  Jews."  In  1821  Mil- 
man  was  made  Professor  of  Poetry  in  the  University  of 
Oxford,  and  in  that  character  he  published  in  1822  two 
new  dramatic  poems,  "  the  Martyr  of  Antioch  "  and  "  Bel- 
shazzar."  When  Milman  went  to  Reading,  some  of  his 
congregation  were  exercised  in  mind  by  hearing  that  their 
new  Vicar  had  written  a  stage  play.  From  their  point  of 
view  u  the  Fall  of  Jerusalem "  had  two  merits,  for  its 
preface  told  them,  that  it  was  not  for  the  stage,  and  that 
it  set  forth  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy.  But  there  was 
set  forth  in  it  also  human  cause  for  the  decline  and  fall  of 
men  and  nations ;  and  the  strength  by  which  a  mind  true 
to  itself  can  stand,  was  the  poet's  theme  in  "the  Martyr 
of  Antioch."  The  martyrologists,  said  Milman,  dwelt 
almost  exclusively  on  the  outward  and  bodily  sufferings 


IN   TI1E  REIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  249 

of  the  early  Christians ;  but  he  shaped  in  his  play  a  tale 
of  the  triumph  over  inward  suffering;  surrender  of  life 
and  the  -world  where  the  world's  wealth  and  happiness 
were  in  the  sufferer's  power,  severing  of  ties  that  Chris- 
tianity endeared  the  more,  a  self-denial  of  the  innocent 
affections ;  "  it  was  from  such  trials,"  said  the  poet,  "  not 
those  of  the  fire  and  the  stake  alone,  that  the  meek  re- 
ligion of  Christ  came  out  triumphant."  The  last  of  Mil- 
man's  plays  was  "Anne  Boleyn,"  in  1826.  It  was  in  1829 
that  he  first  published  his  "  History  of  the  Jews,"  and 
showed  in  it  a  liberal  scholarship  that  gave  alarm  to  many 
who  had  been  taught  to  put  away  their  reason  when  they 
read  the  Bible.  There  was  nothing  in  Milman's  life  or 
writing  that  did  not,  in  the  eyes  of  educated  churchmen, 
harmonize  with  the  best  spirit  and  the  true  aims  of  the 
Church  he  served ;  nor  did  he  remain  long  subject  to  mis- 
apprehension. At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Victoria 
Milman  had  left  Reading,  and  had  been  in  London  for 
two  years  as  Canon  of  Westminster  and  Rector  of  St. 
Margaret's.  In  1838-39  he  published  an  edition  of  Gib- 
bon's History,  with  notes.  This  was  followed  in  1840  by 
his  own  "  History  of  Christianity  from  the  Birth  of  Christ 
to  the  Abolition  of  Paganism  in  the  Roman  Empire,"  in 
three  volumes.  In  1849  he  was  made  Dean  of  St.  Paul's, 
and  took  his  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  In  1854-55 
appeared  the  six  volumes  of  Dean  Milman's  "  History  of 
Latin  Christianity,  including  that  of  the  Popes  to  the 
Pontificate  of  Nicholas  V."  This  continued  his  preceding 
work.  In  1867,  the  year  before  his  death,  there  was  a 
new  and  revised  edition  of  each  of  these  histories ;  that 
of  Latin  Christianity,  being  then  the  fourth,  and  extend- 
ing to  nine  volumes.     In  1865  Dean  Milman  returned  to 


250  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

his  first  love  for  dramatic  poetry,  and  published,  daintily 
adorned  with  little  woodcuts  from  the  antique,  a  trans- 
lation of  the  "  Agamemnon "  of  iEschylus  and  of  the 
"  Bacchanals  "  of  Euripides  into  English  verse.  He  added 
translations  of  a  considerable  number  of  choice  fragments 
from  the  lyric  and  later  poets  of  Greece.  They  had  all 
been  made  when  he  was  Poetry  Professor  at  Oxford. 
Being  required  to  give  his  lectures  —  which  were  on  the 
History  of  Greek  Poetry — in  Latin,  he  felt  that  many  of 
the  students  would  not  follow  readily,  and  chose,  there- 
fore, to  animate  his  work  by  interspersing  his  own  English 
versions  of  passages  selected  for  quotation.  His  Latin 
lectures  he  did  not  care  to  print,  for  Otfried  Midler's  work 
had  since  been  published  and  translated  into  English ; 
but  the  translations  from  Greek  poets  he  was  not  content 
to  part  with.  He,  therefore,  in  his  ripe  age,  added  what 
was  necessary  to  transform  copious  selections  from  two 
Greek  plays  into  complete  translations  of  them,  and  gave 
the  rest  as  it  remained  to  him.  This  volume  Milman  pub- 
lished at  the  age  of  75,  and  three  years  afterwards,  in 
September  1868,  he  died. 

The  Church  of  England  had  another  poet  of  about  Mil- 
man's  age  in  John  Keble,  a  clergyman's  son,  born  in  1792 
at  Fairford  in  Gloucestershire.  Keble  was  educated  by 
his  father  in  his  home  until  he  went  to  Oxford,  to  his 
father's  College,  Corpus  Christi.  He  became  a  Fellow  of 
Oriel,  and  had  high  reputation  in  the  University;  was 
Tutor  at  Oriel  for  five  years ;  served  twice  as  Public  Ex- 
aminer, and  once  as  Master  of  the  Schools.  But  he  gave 
up  his  University  position  to  go  home,  after  his  mother's 
death,  and  help  his  father  by  doing  the  duty  of  two  little 
curacies.     At  different  times  Keble  had  written,  and  still 


IN   THE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  251 

wrote,  religious  poems  in  which  devotional  and  domestic 
feelings  were  associated  with  habitual  reverence  for  ordi- 
nances of  the  Church.  A  poem  had  often  been  written 
on  the  occasion  of  some  festival.  Then  came  the  sugges- 
tion that  by  adding  more  he  might  form  a  chain  of  de- 
votional pieces  extending  over  all  occasions  of  church 
worship  throughout  the  Christian  }rear.  Under  the  name 
of  "  the  Christian  Year  "  this  volume  of  verse  was  first 
published  in  1827.  From  that  time  to  this,  no  new  book 
of  religious  verse  produced  in  England  has  been  so  widely 
diffused.  Within  twenty-six  years  one  hundred  and  eight 
thousand  copies  were  sold  in  forty-three  editions,  and 
"  The  Christian  Year  "  is  still  being  reproduced  in  many 
forms  from  the  cheap  shilling  edition  to  the  luxurious  and 
costly  illustrated  volume.  The  force  of  the  book  lies  in 
its  sincerity.  Its  music  is  the  music  of  a  well  harmonized 
life ;  the  devotion  is  real ;  the  quiet  sense  of  nature  is 
real.  There  are  no  tricks  of  style,  though  there  are  no 
flashes  of  genius.  Keble  laid  stress  on  the  authority  and 
customs  of  the  Church,  he  was  what  in  the  language  of 
party  is  called  a  High  Churchman ;  but  the  true  man, 
whichever  his  side  and  whatever  his  cause,  belongs  to  all 
and  is  a  help  to  all.  In  1825,  when  a  brother  was  able  to 
take  his  place  by  the  side  of  the  old  father  who  lived  to 
be  ninety,  John  Keble  took  a  curacy  at  Hursley.  In  1831, 
he  was  appointed,  as  Milman  had  been  appointed  in  1821, 
to  the  Poetry  Professorship  at  Oxford,  an  orifice  tenable 
for  five  years.  In  1833  he  was  appointed  to  preach  the 
Assize  Sermon  at  St.  Mary's.  He  then  took  for  his  theme 
"National  Apostasy."  Dr.  Newman  looked  upon  that 
sermon  as  the  starting  point  of  the  great  movement  at 
Oxford,  in  which  Newman  himself  had  a  chief  part,  for 


252  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

the  revival  of  English  religion  by  the  restoration  of  the 
power  of  the  Church,  a  movement  very  different  in  kind 
from  that  begun  at  Oxford  by  Wesley  in  the  eighteenth 
century  but  not  less  earnest  in  its  purpose,  nor,  perhaps, 
less  powerful  in  its  effects.  Keble  returned  to  his  quiet 
curacy.  He  was  advanced  in  1835  from  the  curacy  to 
the  vicarage  of  Hursley,  and  then  married.  He  edited 
Hooker's  Works,  and  wrote  five  numbers  of  the  "  Tracts 
for  the  Times "  that  were  speeding  the  new  religious 
movement  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Victoria.  He 
edited  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  a  "Library  of  the 
Fathers',''  published  Sermons  at  various  times,  in  which 
he  laid  great  stress  upon  Sacraments  of  the  Church,  and 
produced  in  1847  another  volume  of  poems  "Lyra  Inno- 
centium."  These  poems  dealt  with  doctrines  of  the 
Church  in  association  with  the  lives  of  children,  whom  he 
loved,  though  in  his  marriage  he  was  childless.  John 
Keble  and  his  wife  died  in  the  same  year  1866,  the  wife 
two  months  after  the  husband. 

Richard  Whately,  also  a  clergyman's  son,  who  was  at 
Oriel  with  Keble,  but  was  five  years  older,  became  Fellow 
of  Oriel  in  1811.  Like  Keble,  he  remained  at  Oxford  as  a 
private  tutor.  His  mind  was  vigorous  and  practical.  In 
1819  he  met  the  doubts  of  sceptics  by  an  imitation  of  their 
style,  applied  to  events  still  within  living  memory,  in  a 
pamphlet  of  "  Historic  Doubts  relative  to  Napoleon." 
This  was  suggested,  probabty,  by  a  pamphlet  in  which 
his  tutor,  Dr.  Copleston  (whose  "  Remains  "  he  edited  in 
1854),  had  treated  with  pleasant  irony  the  destructive 
method  of  some  literary  critics  by  applying  it  to  Milton's 
"  L'Allegro  "  and  "  II  Penseroso."  In  1825  Whately,  who 
had  married  and  gone  to  a  living  in  which  his  wife's  health 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF   VICTORIA.  253 

suffered,  became  Principal  of  St.  Alban's  Hall,  and  took 
the  degree  of  D.D.  In  1827  he  published  "  Elements  of 
Logic  ;  "  and  "  Elements  of  Rhetoric,"  in  1828.  From  1829 
to  1831  he  was  Professor  of  Political  Economy  at  Oxford. 
In  1831  he  was  made  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  and  that  was 
his  position  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Victoria.  His 
influence,  wherever  he  exerted  it,  was  that  of  a  shrewd, 
healthy,  religious  man,  who  battled  against  faction  and  in- 
tolerance, and  sought  to  calm  morbid  excitement.  He 
acted  and  spoke  frankly  and  naturally,  preached  in  a 
natural  voice,  and  in  his  "  Elements  of  Rhetoric  "  tried  to 
persuade  the  clergy  that  the  source  of  "  clergyman's  sore 
throat "  was  their  not  doing  so.  Two  or  three  years  after 
the  Queen's  accession  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  I  was  at  the 
Birthday  Drawing-room  yesterday,  with  the  Bishop  and 
address.  The  Queen  reads  beautifully ;  I  wish  she  would 
teach  some  of  my  clergy."  In  1856  Whately  edited 
Bacon's  "  Essays,"  with  copious  comments  upon  life  which 
they  suggested  to  him.  In  1859  he  edited,  with  annota- 
tions, Paley's  "  Evidences  "  and  Paley's  "  Moral  Philoso- 
phy."    Whately  died  in  1863. 

Richard  Whately  was  one  of  the  eldest,  Thomas  Arnold 
one  of  the  youngest  of  this  group  of  workers.  Arnold 
was  born  in  1795,  and  was  the  youngest  son  of  a  collector 
of  customs  at  West  Cowes.  When  he  was  six  years  old, 
his  father  died.  After  four  years  at  a  school  in  Warmin- 
ster, he  was  sent,  in  1807,  at  the  age  of  twelve,  to  Winches- 
ter. In  his  sixteenth  year,  he  won  a  scholarship  at  Corpus 
Christi  College,  Oxford.  He  obtained  a  Fellowship  in 
1815 ;  gained  prizes  in  1815  and  1817  for  the  two  Univer- 
sity Essays  in  Latin  and  English ;  delighted  in  studies  of 
History;   fastened  on    Thucydides,  whom   he  afterwards 


254  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

edited;  was  earnest,  ardent,  lively  as  a  boy.  When  he 
Avent  to  see  Keble  in  his  new  curacy  at  Hursley,  Keble 
wrote  of  him,  "  Tom  Arnold  ran  down  here  like  a  good 
neighbour,  and  surveyed  the  premises  and  the  neighbour- 
hood presently  after  Christmas.  How  very  unaltered  he 
is,  and  how  very  comfortable  and  contented !  He  is  one 
of  the  persons  whom  it  does  one  good  to  think  of  when  I 
am  in  a  grumbling  vein."  In  1819  Arnold  settled  with 
his  mother,  aunt,  and  sister,  as  partner  with  a  brother-in- 
law,  who  established  a  school  at  Laleham  near  Staines, 
and  undertook  the  preparation  of  young  men  for  the 
Universities.  There  Thomas  Arnold  spent  nine  happy 
years,  after  the  first  of  which  he  married.  In  1827  the 
post  of  Head  Master  at  Rugby  was  vacant.  Arnold  was 
the  last  to  send  in  his  testimonials.  In  one  of  them,  from 
Dr.  Hawkins,  there  was  the  prediction  that  if  Mr.  Arnold 
were  elected  at  Rugby  he  would  change  the  face  of  educa- 
tion throughout  all  the  public  schools  in  England.  Mr. 
Arnold  was  elected,  and  every  public  schoolboy  now  has 
reason  to  be  grateful  for  the  fact.  He  took  priest's  orders, 
entered  on  his  office  in  August  1828,  proceeded  to  his 
degree  of  D.D.,  and,  as  Dr.  Arnold  of  Rugby,  took  a 
place  of  his  own  in  the  story  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
He  knew  how  to  make  religion  a  part  of  the  citizenship 
of  school,  as  he  desired  to  see  it  become  part  of  the  citizen- 
ship of  life.  He  laboured  for  years,  and  in  the  end  suc- 
cessfully, against  those  weaknesses  of  boy  life  which  in  a 
public  school  may  shape  themselves,  for  want  of  a  wise 
guidance  —  and  had  shaped  themselves  —  into  forms  of 
evil,  difficult  to  change.  He  looked  especially  to  his  sixth 
form  boys,  taught  by  himself,  to  be  guides  of  opinion  and 
public  feeling,  and  he  sought   through   them  to  put  his 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  255 

own  mind  into  all.  In  1832  he  bought  for  himself  a 
home,  for  vacation  use  and  future  retirement,  at  Fox  How 
between  Rydal  and  Ambleside.  Upon  all  strife  of  party 
in  the  church  he  looked  with  pain.  In  1839  he  wrote, 
"  When  I  think  of  the  Church  I  could  sit  down  and  pine 
and  die."  There  was  the  fury  of  strife  then  that,  in  the 
early  part  of  the  reign  of  Victoria,  had  been  stirred  by 
the  enthusiasm  of  those  men  who  worked  at  Oxford  for 
the  restoration  of  religion  by  the  re-establishment  of 
Church  authority  over  opinion.  What  Dr.  Arnold  sought 
was  a  practical  union  of  the  spirit  of  religion  with  all 
action  of  the  state  or  of  the  single  citizen.  He  desired  to 
see  all  human  action  founded  upon  Christian  principles, 
and  opinion  free.  In  this  sense  he  said,  "  It  is  because  I 
so  earnestly  desire  the  revival  of  the  Church  that  I  abhor 
the  doctrine  of  the  Priesthood."  Dr.  Arnold  will  be  more 
widely  remembered  as  a  shaper  of  men  than  of  books ; 
but  his  sermons  delivered  to  the  boys  in  Rugby  Chapel, 
and  other  sermons  that  made  part  of  his  labour  to  build 
citizens,  were  collected  into  volumes,  and  during  that 
latter  part  of  his  life  which  fell  within  the  reign  of  Vic- 
toria he  published,  between  1838  and  1843,  his  "History 
of  Rome."  Its  last  volume  was  posthumous.  In  1841  he 
had  accepted  the  duties  of  Regius  Professor  of  Modern 
History  at  Oxford,  and  read  his  Inaugural  Lecture  in  De- 
cember, to  the  especial  delight  of  all  Rugby  boys  who  were 
then  Oxford  men.  On  the  morning  of  Sunday,  the  12th 
of  June,  Thomas  Arnold  died  in  his  bed  of  unsuspected 
heart  disease.  His  last  act  before  he  went  to  rest  had  been 
to  make  an  entry  in  his  diary.  "  The  day  after  to-morrow 
is  my  birth-day,  if  I  am  permitted  to  live  to  see  it  —  my 
forty-seventh  birth-day  since  my  birth.     How  large  a  por- 


256  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

tion  of  my  life  on  earth  is  already  passed  !  And  then  — 
what  is  to  follow  this  life  ?  How  visibly  my  outward  work 
seems  contracting  and  softening  away  into  the  gentler 
employments  of  old  age !  In  one  sense,  how  nearly  can  I 
now  say,  '  Vixi ' !  "  Then  follows  expression  of  a  desire 
to  do,  if  it  might  be,  yet  one  thing.  "  But  above  all," 
he  added,  and  these  were  his  last  written  words,  "  let  me 
mind  my  own  personal  work,  —  to  keep  myself  pure,  and 
zealous,  and  believing,  —  labouring  to  do  God's  will,  yet 
not  anxious  that  it  should  be  done  by  me  rather  than  by 
others,  if  God  disapproves  my  doing  it." 

Here  ends  the  record  of  this  band  of  workers  like  in 
age.  And  with  such  music  in  its  fall,  another  wave 
breaks  on  the  shore  of  time. 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  257 


CHAPTER  X. 

OF   THOMAS   CARLYLE,  AND   OF   DIVINES   AND   "WITS. 

Annan  river,  flowing  through  Dumfriesshire  from  north 
to  south,  enters  the  Solway  Firth  when  it  has  passed  a 
mile  or  two  beyond  Annan  town.  Five  or  six  miles  to 
the  north  of  Annan  is  the  village  of  Ecclefechan  —  the 
Church  of  St.  Fechan  —  where  an  open  burn  once  flowed 
along  its  single  street.  On  the  4th  of  August  1792 
Edward  Irving  was  born  near  the  old  town  cross  of 
Annan,  one  of  the  eight  children  of  Gavin  Irving,  a  tan- 
ner. In  an  adjoining  house,  that  had  the  same  yard  in 
common,  was  born  one  of  Irving's  earliest  play-fellows,  a 
boy  about  four  year  older  than  himself,  who  went  to  sea 
at  thirteen,  and  afterwards  became  famous  as  Hugh  Clap- 
perton,  the  African  explorer.  On  the  4th  of  December 
1795  Thomas  Carlyle  was  born  at  Ecclefechan.  His 
father,  James  Carlyle,  was  a  stonemason,  belonging  to  a 
family  described  by  one  of  their  neighbours  as  "  pithy, 
bitter-speaking  bodies,  and  awfu'  fechters."  Carlyle  him- 
self says  they  were  noted  "for  their  brotherly  affection 
and  coherence,  for  their  hard  sayings  and  hard  strikings." 
James  Carlyle  was  the  steadiest  and  most  prosperous  of 
the  family,  though  he  never  had  more  than  three  months 
of  formal  education.  His  first  wife  dying  a  year  after 
marriage,  he  took  for  second  wife  Margaret  Aitken,  who 
had  been  a  domestic  servant,  and  who  first  learnt  to  use  a 


258  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

pen  in  after  years  that  she  might  be  able  to  write  to  her 
son  Thomas.  In  1797  James  Carlyle  moved  to  a  larger 
house,  where  other  eight  children  were  born.  In  1806, 
when  Thomas  Carlyle's  age  was  a  little  more  than  ten,  his 
father  took  him  to  Annan  School  on  a  Whitsunday  morn- 
ing. "  I,"  says  Carlyle,  "  trotting  by  his  side  in  the  way 
alluded  to  in  Teufelsdrockh.  It  was  a  bright  morning, 
and  to  me  full  of  movement,  of  fluttering  boundless  hopes, 
saddened  by  parting  with  mother,  with  home,  and  with 
hopes  which  afterwards  were  cruelly  disappointed.  He 
called  once  or  twice  in  the  grand  schoolroom,  as  he 
chanced  to  have  business  at  Annan ;  once  sat  down  by  me 
(as  the  master  was  out)  and  asked  whether  I  was  all  well. 
The  boys  did  not  laugh  as  I  feared ;  perhaps  durst  not. 
He  was  always  generous  to  me  in  my  school  expenses ; 
never  by  grudging  look  or  word  did  he  give  me  any  pain. 
With  a  noble  faith  he  launched  me  forth  into  a  world 
which  himself  had  never  been  permitted  to  visit." 

The  schoolmaster  was  an  Adam  Hope,  whose  diligent 
use  of  the  rod  caused  Carlyle,  in  "Sartor  Resartus,"  to 
figure  Annan  school  under  the  name  of  the  Hinterschlag 
Gymnasium,  as  the  burn  at  Ecclefechan,  running  to  the 
Annan  and  the  Solway  Firth,  was  "  the  little  Kuhbach, 
gushing  kindly  by,  among  beechrows,  through  river  after 
river,  to  the  Donau."  Edward  Irving  also  had  been 
taught  by  Adam  Hope,  and  had  left  for  the  Edinburgh 
University,  when  he  was  thirteen  years  old,  a  year  before 
Carlyle's  coming  to  Annan.  "  Old  Adam,"  Carlyle  wrote, 
"  if  you  know  the  Annanites  and  him,  will  be  curiously 
found  visible  there  to  this  day ;  an  argumentative,  clear- 
headed, sound-hearted,  if  rather  conceited  and  contentious 
set  of  people,  more  given  to  intellectual  pursuits  than 
some  of  their  neighbours." 


IN   THE  BEIGN  OF   VICTORIA.  259 

At  fourteen,  Thomas  Carlyle  was  sent  to  Edinburgh, 
walking  from  Ecclefechan  with  a  companion  who  was 
about  to  enter  on  his  second  year.  Carlyle's  father  and 
mother  were  devout  members  of  the  Burgher  Secession 
Kirk  at  Ecclefechan.  It  assembled  in  a  rude  meeting- 
house, under  the  ministration  of  the  Rev.  John  Johnston, 
a  venerable  man  to  whose  sermons  Adam  Hope  and  the 
Burgher  Seceders  from  Annan  travelled  every  sabbath  six 
miles  out  and  six  miles  home.  The  hope  of  James  and 
Margaret  Carlyle  was  to  see  their  eldest  son  in  the  pulpit, 
and  it  was  a  bitter  disappointment  to  the  father  when  the 
son  found  that  he  could  not  enter  the  church.  Carlyle 
himself  told  of  this  time  in  answer  to  a  question  from  Dr. 
Milburn,  a  blind  preacher  from  America,  who  asked  how 
he  came  by  his  dyspepsia :  "  The  voice  came  to  me,  saying, 
'  Arise  and  settle  the  problem  of  thy  life ! '  I  had  been 
destined  by  my  father  and  my  father's  minister  to  be  my- 
self a  minister.  But  now  that  I  had  gained  man's  estate, 
I  was  not  sure  that  I  believed  the  doctrines  of  my  father's 
kirk ;  and  it  was  needful  I  should  now  settle  it.  And  so 
I  entered  into  my  chamber  and  closed  the  door,  and 
around  me  there  came  a  trooping  throng  of  phantasms 
dire  from  the  abysmal  depths  of  nethermost  perdition. 
Doubt,  Fear,  Unbelief,  Mockery,  and  Scorn  were  there ; 
and  I  arose  and  wrestled  with  them  in  travail  and  agony 
of  spirit.  Whether  I  ate  I  know  not ;  whether  I  slept  I 
know  not ;  I  only  know  that  when  I  came  forth  again  it 
was  with  the  direful  persuasion  that  I  was  the  miserable 
owner  of  a  diabolical  arrangement,  called  a  stomach ;  and 
I  have  never  been  free  from  that  knowledge  from  that 
hour  to  this,  and  I  suppose  that  I  never  shall  be  until  I 
am  laid  away  in  my  grave." 


260  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Thomas  Carlyle  took  no  degree  in  Edinburgh.  In  the 
summer  of  1814,  when  in  his  nineteenth  year,  and  still 
looking  to  the  pulpit  as  his  aim  in  life,  he  obtained,  by 
competition  at  Dumfries,  the  post  of  mathematical  master 
in  the  Annan  Academy,  where  he  earned  £60  or  .£70  a 
year.  Thus  he  could  relieve  his  father  of  expense  while 
making  the  necessary  appearances  at  Edinburgh  as  a 
divinity  student.  It  was  usual  for  the  Scottish  clerical 
students  to  earn  by  teaching,  after  their  first  session  in 
the  "  Divinity  Hall."  Edward  Irving,  also  a  divinity 
student  at  Edinburgh,  had  in  the  same  manner,  at  the  age 
of  eighteen,  been  appointed,  on  the  recommendation  of 
Dr.  Christison,  the  Humanity  Professor,  and  Sir  John 
Leslie,  the  Professor  of  Mathematics,  to  a  newly  estab- 
lished Mathematical  School  at  Haddington. 

Irving  is  described  by  a  pupil  as  having  then  been  "  a 
tall,  robust,  handsome  youth,  cheerful  and  kindly  dis- 
posed, who  soon  won  the  confidence  of  his  advanced 
pupils,  and  was  admitted  into  the  best  society  in  the  town 
and  neighbourhood."  The  chief  surgeon  of  Haddington 
was  Mr.  John  Welsh,  with  local  rank  as  Dr.  Welsh,  who 
owned  part  of  some  land  that  had  belonged  to  his  ances- 
tors at  Craigenputtock.  He  claimed  descent  from  a 
famous  John  Welsh,  Minister  of  Ayr,  who  married  John 
Knox's  youngest  daughter.  Dr.  Welsh  had  an  only 
daughter,  Jane,  whom  he  desired,  since  she  was  all  he 
had,  to  educate  as  liberally  as  if  she  were  a  boy.  Mrs. 
Welsh  wished  her  to  be  educated  as  a  girl,  that  is  to  say, 
left  partly  uneducated.  Little  Jane,  hearing  the  discus- 
sions about  herself,  made  up  her  own  mind.  Desiring  to 
be  educated  as  a  boy,  she  worked  secretly  at  Latin  de- 
clensions, and   broke,  one    evening,  upon  the  discussion 


ZflT   TUE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  261 

between  father  and  mother,  by  suddenly  declining  penna, 
pennce,  from  under  the  table.  The  triumphant  father 
asked  Sir  John  Leslie  to  send  him  from  Edinburgh  a 
sufficient  tutor  for  so  promising  a  child.  Sir  John  replied 
that  a  sufficient  tutor  was  already  in  Haddington.  Ed- 
ward Irving  was,  therefore,  engaged  to  give  lessons  every 
morning  to  Miss  Jane  Welsh,  from  six  to  eight  o'clock, 
before  his  own  work  in  the  school  began.  In  that  way 
Irving  first  established  life-long  friendship  with  the  Jane 
"Welsh  who  became  Mrs.  Carlyle. 

Carlyle,  in  whom  some  characteristics  of  a  family  of 
"  pithy,  bitter-speaking  bodies  "  blended  with  a  sense  of 
power  and  unsatisfied  yearnings,  frankly  tells  how  jeal- 
ously he  looked  on  Irving  when  he  saw  him  first  as  an 
old  boy  of  whom  the  Annan  School  was  proud,  returning 
flushed  with  successes  from  the  University,  and  looking 
in  on  Adam  Hope  in  schoolhours.  It  was  so  also  when 
Carlyle  saw  him  for  the  second  time,  fresh  from  his  new 
Academy  at  Haddington,  where  "  as  to  his  schoolmaster 
successes,"  Carlyle  wrote,  "  I  cared  little  about  that,  and 
easily  flung  that  out  when  it  came  across  me.  But  nat- 
urally all  this  betrumpeting  of  Irving  to  me  (in  which  I 
could  sometimes  trace  some  touch  of  malice  to  myself) 
had  not  awakened  in  me  any  love  towards  this  victorious 
man."  Of  himself,  as  Mathematical  Master  at  Annan, 
he  said,  "  I  was  abundantly  lonesome,  uncomfortable,  and 
out  of  place  there.  Didn't  go  and  visit  the  people  there. 
Ought  to  have  pushed  myself  in  a  little  silently,  and 
sought  invitations.  Such  their  form  of  special  politeness, 
which  I  was  far  too  shy  and  proud  to  be  able  for." 

After  two  years  at  Haddington  Irving  obtained,  through 
the  good  offices  of  Sir  John  Leslie,  charge  over  a  newly 


262  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

established  Academy  in  "the  lang  town  of  Kirkcaldy," 
which  stretched,  little  more  than  a  thin  line  of  street,  a 
mile  long,  by  the  northern  shore  of  the  Firth  of  Forth. 
Irving's  school-discipline  was  severe,  beyond  even  the 
custom  of  the  time ;  but  out  of  school  he  was  the  friend 
and  comrade  of  his  boys  and  girls.  One  of  his  pupils, 
Isabella  Martin,  eldest  daughter  of  the  parish  minister  at 
Kirkcaldy,  afterwards  became  his  wife.  In  1815  Irving 
obtained  his  license  to  preach,  and  his  first  sermon  was 
preached  in  his  native  town.  But  he  remained  for 
another  three  years  schoolmaster  at  Kircaldy,  depreciated, 
when  he  preached  there,  as  a  young  man  with  "ower 
muckle  gran'ner,"  too  much  grandeur.  His  severity 
caused  a  third  or  fourth  part  of  the  parents  of  his  pupils 
to  revolt  against  him.  They  determined  to  revive  the 
parish  school  by  buying  off  an  effete  schoolmaster,  and 
applying  again  to  Professors  Christison  and  Leslie  for  a 
competent  teacher.  Thomas  Carlyle  was  recommended. 
While  that  was  being  arranged,  Irving  again  was  in 
Annan,  this  time  comforting  old  Adam  Hope  for  the  loss 
of  his  wife,  and  he  met  Carlyle  engaged  upon  like  duty. 
The  complete  unselfishness  with  which  Irving  welcomed 
Carlyle  as  one  who  was  to  be  his  neighbour,  and  offered  to 
his  proposed  rival  the  use  of  his  house  while  he  was  set- 
tling, conquered  finally  Carlyle's  proud  shyness.  Carlyle 
went,  and  he  says,  "  room  for  plenty  of  the  vulgarest 
peddling  feeling  there  was,  and  there  must  still  have 
been  between  us,  had  either  of  us,  especially  had  Irving, 
been  of  pedlar  nature.  And  I  can  say  there  could  be  no 
two  Kaisers,  nor  Charlemagne  and  Barbarossa,  had  they 
neighboured  one  another  in  the  empire  of  Europe,  been 
more  completely  rid  of  all  that  sordes,  than  were  we  two 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  263 

schoolmasters  in  the  burgh  of  Kirkcaldy."  Thomas  Car- 
lyle, as  schoolmaster  at  Kirkcaldy,  was  not  less  severe 
than  Edward  Irving;  but  in  the  end  of  1818  both  Irving 
and  Carlyle  became  weary  of  their  work  and  left  for  Edin- 
burgh, each  with  a  little  money  saved ;  Irving  with 
several  hundred,  and  Carlyle  with  about  one  hundred 
pounds.  At  Kirkcaldy  Carlyle  is  said  to  have  been  little 
known,  "-being  then,  as  afterwards,  moody  and  retiring 
in  his  disposition."  While  there  he  spent  some  time  on 
a  translation  of  Legendre's  Geometry,  which  was  pub- 
lished in  1821,  with  an  introductory  essay  on  Proportion 
of  which  Professor  De  Morgan  afterwards  wrote  that  it 
was  "  as  good  a  substitute  for  the  fifth  book  of  Euclid  as 
could  be  given  in  speech,  and  quite  enough  to  show  that 
Carlyle  would  have  been  a  distinguished  teacher  and 
thinker  in  first  principles." 

In  1819  a  letter  from  Irving  represented  his  friend  Car- 
lyle as  going  from  Edinburgh  to  Ecclefechan,  saying,  "  I 
have  the  ends  of  my  thoughts  to  bring  together,  which  no 
one  can  do  in  this  thoughtless  scene.  I  have  my  views  of 
life  to  reform,  and  the  whole  plan  of  my  conduct  to  new- 
model  ;  and  withal  I  have  my  health  to  recover.  And 
then  once  more  I  shall  venture  my  bark  upon  the  waters 
of  this  wide  realm,  and  if  she  cannot  weather  it,  I  shall 
steer  west  and  try  the  waters  of  another  world !  So," 
Irving  wrote,  "  he  reasons  and  resolves ;  but  surely  a 
worthier  destiny  awaits  him  than  exile."  Carlyle  earned, 
from  1820  to  1823,  by  writing  articles  in  Brewster's  Edin- 
burgh Encyclopaedia  and  by  other  pen-work.  His  friend 
Irving  had  then  begun  enthusiastic  labour  among  the 
poor  under  Chalmers  at  Glasgow.  In  1823  Carlyle  was 
introduced  by  Irving  to  his  old  pupil  Jane  Welsh,  whose 


264  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

father  was  then  dead,  and  had  left  to  widow  and  daughter 
Craigenputtock  with  what  other  property  he  had.  In 
that  year  Irving  received  his  call  from  the  Caledonian 
Chapel  in  London.  In  July  he  began  his  ministration  in 
Cross  Street,  Hatton  Garden.  His  tall  figure,  the  spirit- 
ual face  alight  with  enthusiasm,  the  dignity  of  earnest- 
ness, too  real  to  be  marred  by  a  squint  that  he  had  from 
his  birth,  the  grandeur  of  manner  that  had  perplexed 
Kirkcaldy,  and  the  frank  goodness  of  Irving's  whole 
nature,  were  felt  by  all  who  came  under  his  influence. 
Wilkie,  the  painter,  came  to  hear  his  countryman,  and 
came  again,  bringing  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence.  Zachary 
Macaulay  was  impressed.  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  induced 
to  look  in,  heard  Irving  pray  for  a  family  of  orphans  as 
now  "  thrown  upon  the  fatherhood  of  God,"  and  repeated 
the  phrase  to  Canning.  Canning  at  once  engaged  to  go 
with  Mackintosh  to  Irving's  church  on  the  following-  Sun- 
day.  He  did  so.  A  few  days  afterwards  something  was 
said,  in  a  debate  on  Church  matters,  about  the  necessary 
relation  between  high  qualifications  and  high  pay.  Can- 
ning then  told  the  House  that  he  himself  had  lately 
heard  a  Scotch  minister,  trained  in  one  of  the  most  poorly 
endowed  of  churches,  preach  the  most  eloquent  sermon 
he  had  ever  listened  to.  This  reference  awakened  public 
curiosity,  and  London  "Society"  was  thenceforth  set 
down  in  many  carriages,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  at  the 
small  chapel  in  Cross  Street,  Hatton  Garden.  Irving  had 
become  one  of  the  most  praised  and  most  abused  of  men, 
but  kept  his  pure-hearted  enthusiasm  unstained,  when  he 
married,  in  October  1823,  his  old  pupil,  Miss  Martin,  the 
minister's  daughter  at  Kirkcaldy.  In  that  first  year  of 
his   popularity,   Irving    again    helped    Thomas    Carlyle. 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTOR  I  A.  265 

Finding  a  tutor  wanted  to  prepare  Charles  Duller  and  his 
brother  Arthur  for  College,  Irving  advised  that  Charles 
Buller  should  be  sent  to  the  University  of  Edinburgh, 
and  placed  under  the  tutorship  of  Carlyle.  This  was 
done,  and  Carlyle  received  £200  a  year  for  his  private 
teaching  of  a  brilliant  youth  whose  death,  when  he  had 
risen  to  manhood  with  high  promise  of  all  usefulness,  was 
followed  by  no  tribute  to  his  memory  more  eloquent  and 
warm-hearted  than  that  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  which  was 
published  in  "  the  Examiner  "  newspaper. 

Carlyle's  pen-work  was  growing  in  importance  when  he 
had  Charles  Buller  for  a  pupil.  Still  there  was  the  unsat- 
isfied aspiration  of  a  mind  conscious  of  depths  yet  to  be 
stirred.  In  1823  Carlyle  was  impelled  to  some  trials  of 
verse,  and  in  a  "  Tragedy  of  the  Night  Moth,"  who  is  too 
evidently  a  poetical  poor  cousin  to  Burns's  "  Mouse,"  he 

wrote :  — 

Poor  moth  !  thy  fate  my  own  resembles : 

Me  too  a  restless  asking  mind 
Hath  sent  on  far  and  weary  rambles, 

To  seek  the  good  I  ne'er  shall  find. 

Like  thee,  with  common  lot  contented, 

With  humble  joys  and  vulgar  fate, 
I  might  have  lived  and  ne'er  lamented, 

Moth  of  a  larger  size,  a  longer  date. 

He  had  contributed  a  paper  on  Goethe's  "  Faust "  to  a 
"New  Edinburgh  Review,"  in  1822.  The  first  part  of 
his  "  Life  of  Schiller "  was  contributed  to  "  the  London 
Magazine,"  in  October  1823,  the  rest  appeared  in  the 
course  of  1824,  in  which  year  he  received  £50  for  his 
translation  of  Legendre,  which  was  edited  by  Brewster. 
In   the   same   year  also   he   published   his  translation  of 


266  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Goethe's  "  Wilhelm  Meister,"  with  a  preface  in  which  he 
expressed  his  wish  to  turn  the  English  reader  from  a  false 
and  sentimental  notion  of  the  great  poet  of  Germany, 
based  on  a  misreading  of  "  Faust,"  to  a  true  sense  of  his 
large  and  healthy  power.  The  translation,  for  which 
Carlyle  received  £180,  was  praised  and  abused  until  it 
obtained  public  attention. 

After  the  printing  of  "  Wilhelm  Meister,"  Carlyle  came 
to  London,  in  June  1824,  staying  as  guest  with  his  friend 
Irving  for  the  first  few  weeks,  and  then  taking  rooms  in 
Irving's  neighbourhood.  Irving's  house  was  open  to  him 
as  a  brother's  during  his  stay  in  London,  which  ended  in 
March  1825.  In  London,  plagued  with  dyspepsia,  Carlyle 
was  teaching  Charles  Buller,  impatient  of  Mrs.  Buller's 
changeful  plans,  until  he  finally  advised  that  his  pupil 
should  be  sent  straight  to  Cambridge,  and  there  placed 
under  a  Cambridge  tutor.  There  was  a  little  money  now 
in  hand,  and  in  the  next  year,  1825,  Carlyle  received 
<£100  for  the  publication  of  the  "Life  of  Schiller,"  in  a 
volume.  When  contributed  to  the  "  Magazine,"  no  pay- 
ment had  been  received  for  it. 

In  the  next  year,  1826,  Thomas  Carlyle  married  Jane 
Welsh.  He  was  then  thirty  years  old.  One  of  the  good 
friends  he  had  made  in  London,  Bryan  Procter  —  "Barry 
Cornwall  "  —  gave  Him  a  letter  of  introduction  to  Francis 
Jeffrey.  In  the  "  Edinburgh  Review "  Jeffrey  had  pro- 
nounced the  Life  of  Schiller  "  eminently  absurd,  puerile, 
incongruous  and  affected,"  but  he  had  slipped  towards  the 
close  of  his  review  into  "  some  feeling  of  mollification," 
and  ended  by  finding  the  author  to  be  "a  person  of 
talents."  Armed  with  personal  introduction,  Carlyle 
faced   Jeffrey  in   his   study.     Jeffrey  had   better   insight 


IX   THE  BEIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  267 

into  men  than  into  books,  and  with  aid  of  human  inter- 
course he  soon  found  Thomas  Carlyle  to  be  not  merely  "a 
person  of  talents  "  but  a  man  of  genius.  He  understood 
something  of  the  struggle  of  the  soul  hungering  for  noble 
work,  and  not  without  that  hunger  also  for  a  sympathetic 
answer  from  its  fellows  which  gives  to  men  of  genius  who 
live  secluded  lives  their  greed  for  fame.  It  is  a  yearning 
that  has  not  one  point  in  common  with  the  shallow  greed 
for  notoriety  in  those  who  care  more  for  themselves  than 
for  their  thoughts.  Jeffrey's  kind  heart  was  quickly 
moved  to  sympathy,  and  friendly  relations  were  at  once 
established. 

After  much  deliberation,  Carlyle  and  his  wife  resolved 
to  live  upon  the  wife's  little  property  at  Craigenputtock, 
where  the  pen  could  be  busy  in  earning,  and  the  mind 
free  to  determine  its  true  work  in  life.  They  went  in 
May  1828,  Carlyle  then  being  thirty-two  years  old.  Jef- 
frey promised  to  visit  them,  and  did  so.  Articles  in  the 
"Edinburgh  Review"  became,  from  1828  to  1831,  one 
source  of  income.  The  first  articles,  written  in  1828, 
were  those  on  "Jean  Paul  Richter"and  on  "Burns." 
Some  influence  of  Jean  Paul  Richter  upon  Carlyle's  mind 
and  style  was  manifest  to  the  end,  and  no  thoughtful 
reader  of  Carlyle's  first  article  in  "The  Edinburgh"  can 
fail  to  observe  passages  in  which  the  writer  hints  uncon- 
sciously some  lights  and  shades  from  his  own  mind  as 
characteristics  of  Jean  Paul.  The  sympathetic  insight  of 
genius  was  in  Carlyle's  paper  upon  Burns. 

In  his  first  year  at  Craigenputtock  Carlyle  placed  him- 
self in  correspondence  with  Goethe,  who  wrote  a  preface 
to  a  German  translation  of  his  "  Life  of  Schiller,"  and 
regarded  him  as  the  first  Englishman  who  had  found  his 


268  OF  ENGLISH  LITEBATUBE 

way  to  the  heart  of  German  Literature.  "  Let  me  yet  con- 
fess," he  wrote  to  Goethe,  in  September  1828,  "that  I  am 
uncertain  about  my  future  literary  work,  about  which  I 
should  be  glad  to  get  your  opinion."  Within  easy  reach  of 
Edinburgh,  but  placed  among  granite  hills  and  moorlands 
in  what  he  called  the  loneliest  spot  in  Britain,  six  miles 
from  any  person  who  might  be  disposed  to  call  on  him, 
Carlyle  had  freedom  to  work  out  the  problem  of  his  life, 
and  with  it  the  problem  of  the  life  of  every  man.  In  1827 
he  published  "  Specimens  of  German  Romance."  In  Decem- 
ber 1829  he  wrote  to  Jeffrey,  "  I  have  some  thoughts  of 
beginning  to  prophesy  next  year,  if  I  prosper."  Next  year, 
at  the  age  of  thirty -four,  between  January  and  August,  1830, 
"  Sartor  Resartus  "  was  written.  All  voices  out  of  the  depths 
of  his  own  past  and  present  life  were  there.  Half  disguis- 
ing the  intensity  of  direct  speech  by  uttering  it  from 
under  the  grotesque  mask  of  the  German  Professor,  God- 
born  Devilsdung,  Diogenes  Teufelsdrockh,  who  had  written 
a  book  on  Clothes  Philosophy ;  with  poetic  irony  playing 
the  humorous  critic  upon  quotations  from  the  Professor's 
book,  which  were  utterances  that  came  glowing  from  Car- 
lyle's  own  inmost  soul ;  he  felt  that  he  had  struck  at  last 
the  true  note  of  his  life.  In  the  middle  of  August  1831 
he  came  to  London  with  his  book,  to  find  a  publisher. 
The  book  had  been  written  to  no  pattern  known  in  the 
trade.  His  wife  followed  him  to  London,  in  December, 
with  the  last  letter  written  to  him  by  his  father.  In 
January  1832,  while  he  was  still  in  London,  his  father 
died.  Then  he  closed  his  door  and  wrote  those  recol- 
lections which  form  one  section  of  the  "  Reminiscences " 
published  after  Thomas  Carlyle's  own  death.  "Thank 
Heaven,"  he  wrote  at  the  close,  "  I  know  and  have  known 


IN  TIIE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  269 

what  it  is  to  be  a  son ;  to  love  a  father,  as  spirit  can  love 
spirit,  God  give  me  to  live  to  my  father's  honour,  and.  to 
His." 

Disappointed  in  London,  Carlyle  after  his  return  to 
Craigenputtock,  in  the  spring  of  1832,  applied  to  Jeffrey 
— then  Lord  Advocate  —  for  aid  to  the  obtaining  of  an 
appointment  as  keeper  of  an  Observatory  then  being 
established  in  Edinburgh.  Jeffrey,  whose  kindness  to 
Carlyle  had  led  him  to  offer  aid  of  <£100  a  year  to  the 
Craigenputtoek  household,  —  an  offer,  of  course,  not  ac- 
cepted —  did  not  encourage  this  attempt  to  turn  again 
from  Literature  to  Mathematics.  Carlyle  battled  on.  In 
the  }rears  1833—34,  "  Sartor  Resartus  "  appeared  as  a  series 
of  articles  in  "  Fraser's  Magazine."  In  May  1834  Thomas 
Carlyle  and  his  wife  left  Craigenputtock  for  London,  and 
established  themselves  in  the  house  that  was  Carlyle's 
home  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  5  Che}'ne  Row,  Chelsea. 
Thenceforward  Carlyle's  way  was  clear  before  him,  though 
for  some  years  difficult  to  tread.  His  next  book  was  "  The 
French  Revolution.  A  History,"  published  in  the  first 
year  of  the  Reign  of  Victoria ;  and  it  was  not  until  the 
following  year  1838  that  "  Sartor  Resartus  "  was  published 
in  England  as  a  volume. 

Thomas  Carlyle  came  to  London  in  May  1834,  and  in 
December  of  the  same  year  Edward  Irving  died,  wasted 
by  consumption.  Advance  of  the  disease  was  hastened 
by  the  trials  of  his  later  years.  The  fervour  and  the  high 
aims,  common  to  them  both,  that  had  brought  Irving  and 
Carlyle  into  early  fellowship,  had  caused  Irving  to  mag- 
nify his  priestly  office  with  intensity  of  zeal.  If,  like 
Carlyle,  he  chose  rather  to  be  master  than  disciple,  his 
aspirations  were  not  the  less  pure  and  sincere.     He  felt 


270  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

as  an  Apostle  when,  assisting  Chalmers  in  Glasgow,  he 
entered  every  poor  room  that  lie  visited  with  a  solemn 
"  Peace  be  to  this  House."  lie  felt  as  a  Prophet  when, 
at  last,  in  1831  the  gifts  lost  through  the  little  faith  of 
men  seemed  to  him  to  be  recovered  by  disciples  to  whom 
he  himself  ministered,  and  he  mistook  the  delusions  of 
hysterical  women  for  descent  from  Heaven  of  the  gift  of 
tongues  that  is  spoken  of  in  the  14th  Chapter  of  the  1st 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  There  never  was  a  more  honest 
or,  to  most  men,  a  more  obvious  delusion  than  this  which 
made  wreck  of  the  life  of  Edward  Irving.  His  loving 
ardent  mind  had  sought  to  lead  men  out  of  darkness  far 
into  the  light  beyond  the  veil  that  shrouds  the  mysteries 
of  God.  In  the  hour  of  death  it  consoled  him  to  think 
that  he  had  triumphed  by  the  restoration  in  some  souls  of 
living  faith,  and,  as  he  lay  wasted  by  sickness,  he  believed 
that  in  his  hour  of  utmost  weakness  God  was  about  miracu- 
lously to  renew  his  faithful  servant's  strength.  When  the 
end  came,  his  last  words  were  "  If  I  die,  I  die  unto  the 
Lord ;  "  and  his  strength  was  renewed,  though  not  in  this 
world. 

Irving's  writings  were  collected,  and  his  life  told  in  1862 
by  Margaret  Oliphant,  a  lady,  born  about  the  year  1818, 
who  began  her  career  as  a  novelist  in  1849  with  "Passages 
from  the  Life  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Maitland."  In  many  sub- 
sequent novels  among  which  may  be  named  "  Chronicles 
of  Carlingford  "  and  "  Salem  Chapel,"  Mrs.  Oliphant  has 
shown  always  a  gentle  spirit  under  a  quick,  womanly 
sense  of  life  and  character.  She  published  also  in  1870  a 
life  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  and  in  1876  a  book  on  "the 
Makers  of  Florence :  Dante,  Giotto,  Savonarola,  and  their 
City." 


IN   TUE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  271 

Thomas  Carlyle,  when  he  settled  in  London,  had  his 
intellectual  way  clear  before  him.  He  also  sought,  as 
every  writer  of  foremost  power  has  sought,  and  still  seeks, 
in  the  reign  of  Victoria,  to  aid  as  he  could  in  the  work  of 
citizen-building.  He  felt  the  lowness  of  the  civilization  yet 
attained  by  man,  overstated  it,  and  laboured  throughout 
life  to  raise  it.  "  Not  what  I  have,  but  what  I  do,  is  my 
kingdom,"  he  taught  in  "  Sartor  Resartus,"  and  in  every 
book  written  afterwards.  Through  the  mere  surroundings 
of  life,  man's  clothes,  his  wealth  and  house  and  land,  his 
body's  dress,  and  his  soul's  dress  which  the  body  is,  straight 
through  this  to  the  life  within,  we  must  look  if  we  wish  to 
see  ourselves,  or  know  one  another.  That  is  the  Clothes 
Philosophy.  The  life  within,  which  is  alone  worth  cherish- 
ing, owes  all  its  health  to  action,  and  for  the  advance  of  the 
world  by  true  citizen-building  the  one  thing  needful  is, 
that  each  should  live  his  own  life  worthily.  While  setting 
aside  dogmatic  theology,  Carlyle,  in  "  Sartor  Resartus " 
and  in  every  book  that  followed  it,  held  fast  to  a  faith  in 
God  and  immortality,  and  made  it  his  work  as  a  writer  to 
teach  men  to  live  vigorous  lives :  "  Most  true  is  it,"  he 
said,  "  as  a  wise  man  .teaches  us,  that  doubt  of  any  sort 
cannot  be  removed  except  by  Action.  On  which  ground, 
too,  let  him  who  gropes  painfully  in  darkness  or  uncertain 
light,  and  prays  vehemently  that  the  dawn  may  ripen  into 
day,  lay  this  other  precept  also  well  to  heart,  which  to  me 
was  of  invaluable  service  :  —  Do  the  Duty  which  lies  near- 
est thee,  which  thou  knowest  to  be  a  Duty.  The  second 
duty  will  already  have  become  clearer.  May  we  not  say, 
however,  that  the  hour  of  spiritual  enfranchisement  is  even 
this?  When  your  ideal  world,  wherein  the  whole  man  has 
been  dimly  struggling  and  inexpressibly  languishing  to 


272  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

•work,  becomes  revealed  and  thrown  open,  and  you  discover 
with  amazement  enough,  like  the  Lothario  in  Wilhelm 
Meister,  that  your  America  is  here  or  nowhere.  The  situa- 
tion that  has  not  its  duty,  its  ideal,  was  never  yet  occupied 
by  man.  Yes,  here,  in  this  poor,  miserable,  hampered  actual 
wherein  thou  even  now  standest,  here  or  nowhere,  is  thy 
Ideal ;  work  it  out  therefrom,  believe,  live,  and  be  free. 
Fool !  the  Ideal  is  in  thyself,  the  impediment  too  is  in  thy- 
self. Thy  condition  is  but  the  stuff  thou  art  to  shape  that 
same  ideal  out  of.  What  matter  whether  such  stuff  be 
of  this  sort  or  that,  so  the  form  thou  give  it  be  heroic,  be 
poetic  ?  O  thou  that  pinest  in  the  imprisonment  of  the 
actual,  and  criest  bitterly  to  the  Gods  for  a  kingdom  where- 
in to  rule  and  create,  know  this  of  a  truth,  the  thing  thou 
seekest  is  already  with  thee,  here  or  nowhere,  couldst  thou 
only  see." 

Carlyle's  way  of  thought,  like  that  of  all  the  foremost 
thinkers  in  England  during  the  Reign  of  Victoria,  is  in 
some  sense  a  product  of  the  forces  that  produced  the  great 
upheaval  described  with  all  the  fervour  of  his  genius  in 
his  book  on  the  French  Revolution.  Throughout  his  life 
Carlyle  held  by  the  great  central  truth,  that  real  advance 
can  be  secured  only  by  development  of  the  individual. 
Like  Wordsworth,  he  insisted  upon  universal  education, 
and  dwelt  on  it  in  the  book  on  "  Chartism  "  published  in 
1839.  His  contempt  for  the  blind  action  of  the  masses, 
and  the  inclination  shown  very  distinctly  in  his  "Chart- 
ism," and  in  later  books  with  growing  force,  for  govern- 
ment of  the  brute  herd  by  despotism  of  some  man  who 
really  lives  his  life  and  works  his  will,  may  be  taken  as 
part  of  a  strong  insistance  upon  one  great  truth,  the  deep 
conviction  of  his  life,  that  all  his  genius  was   spent  in 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  273 

bringing  home  to  others.  His  book  "  On  Heroes,  Hero- 
worship  and  the  Heroic  in  History,"  published  in  1841, 
was  full  of  broadest  sympathy  with  individual  men,  what- 
ever their  type  of  thought,  who  had  known  themselves  and 
the  purpose  of  their  lives,  had  worked  their  will,  and  risen 
high  above  the  servile  crowd  of  imitators  who  reproduce 
dead  forms  of  life,  and  so  are  what  Carlyle  called  "Apes 
of  the  Dead  Sea." 

Carlyle  knew  and  loved  a  man,  whenever  he  came  near 
enough  to  see  him.  His  own  father  seemed  the  best  of  men, 
and  his  own  wife  the  best  of  women.  Of  men  in  the  past, 
whose  deeds  and  motives  he  could  scrutinize  in  the  retire- 
ment of  his  study,  and  who  thus  yielded  to  his  penetrating 
genius  the  secrets  of  their  lives,  he  discerned  the  worthi- 
ness or  worthlessness,  and  he  took  pleasure  in  the  contem- 
plation of  their  strength.  But  the  men  who  lived  about 
him  in  the  world,  and  who  could  be  known  only  by  free 
and  equal  intercourse  outside  the  study,  his  shy  self-con- 
scious spirit  seldom  came  near  enough  to  understand.  Of 
them  he  was  at  home  a  "  pithy,  bitter-speaking  body,"  best 
liking  those  of  whom  he  knew  the  most,  and  full  of  a  deli- 
cate kindness  in  his  personal  relations  with  them.  The 
worthiness  of  his  subject  and  the  fidelity  with  which  he 
reproduced  Cromwell  speaking  his  own  thoughts  in  his 
own  words,  gave  dignity  to  the  study  of  Cromwell,  simply 
entitled  "  Oliver  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches ;  with 
Elucidations,"  which  Carlyle  published  in  1845.  His  love 
for  a  friend,  who  was  not  a  strong  man  but  who  yet  sought 
honestly  to  work  out  his  convictions,  gives  beauty  as  well 
as  strength  to  Carlyle's  "Life  of  John  Sterling,"  pub- 
lished in  1851.  In  1848  Archdeacon  Hare,  to  whom  and 
to  Carlyle  Sterling  had  committed  all  discretion  as  to  the 


274  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

editing  of  his  writings,  had  published  John  Sterling's 
Essays  and  Tales  with  a  sketch  of  his  life.  Sterling  had 
been  ordained  as  a  clergyman,  had  served  the  Church  for 
a  few  months,  but  had  been  led,  partly,  no  doubt,  by  his 
friend  Carlyle,  away  from  the  fold  of  the  Church  to  sim- 
ple love  of  God  and  faith  in  Him.  Julius  Hare,  in  no  nar- 
row spirit,  had  discussed  this  feature  in  Sterling  from  a 
point  of  view  within  the  Church,  and  Carlyle  felt  bound 
to  tell  the  world  his  friend's  life  from  another  point  of 
view.  He  showed  him  faithfully  as  "  among  the  million 
little  beautiful,  once  more  a  beautiful  human  soul ;  whom 
I,  among  others,  recognized  and  lovingly  walked  with, 
while  the  years  and  hours  were."  But  Carlyle  knew  little 
of  life  among  the  million,  who  were  therefore  "  little  beau- 
tiful "  for  him. 

In  1858,  1862,  and  1865  Carlyle  published,  by  two  vol- 
umes at  a  time,  the  six  volumes  of  his  "  History  of  Fred- 
erick the  Great,"  a  work  by  which  he  again  allied  himself 
to  German  thought.  He  had  been  drawn  towards  Fred- 
erick by  admiration  of  strong  individual  will.  Subsequent 
events  have  shown  that  Frederick's  work  was  the  shaping 
not  only  of  a  strong  Prussia  but  through  it  of  a  strong 
United  Germany,  there  was  no  want,  therefore,  of  a  right 
historic  sense  in  giving  fourteen  years  of  work  to  such  a 
theme.  But  Frederick  was  not  another  Cromwell,  and 
Carlyle  became  more  and  more  conscious  of  his  hero's  un- 
worthiness  while  still  he  was  upholding  him  as  t}-pe  of  the 
man  of  strong  will  who  beats  down  all  obstacles,  achieves 
his  own  ends  and  controls  the  destinies  of  others.  While 
Carlyle  showed  in  this  History  his  marvellous  power  at 
its  height,  there  is  no  book  of  his  that  defines  more  clearly 
the  limitations  of  his  power,  or  more  frequently  chafes  the 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  275 

reader  by  the  twists  and  wrenches  given  to  our  mother 
tongue.  What  had  been  a  slight  fault  in  the  earlier  books, 
caught  from  half  imitation  of  Jean  Paul  and  other  Ger- 
man Writers  by  a  secluded  man  of  genius  who  wished  to 
speak  out  of  his  own  depths  in  his  own  way,  became  in 
the  later  books  a  vice  of  style.  Young  writers  with  their 
hearts  kindled  at  the  fire  of  Carlyle's  genius,  paid  him,  in 
the  only  possible  way,  the  sincere  flattery  of  imitation. 
They  copied  the  faults  of  style  which  it  required  no  genius 
to  reproduce.  Even  now  there  is  to  be  met  with,  here 
and  there,  a  man  of  high  and  mature  intellectual  power 
who  cannot  altogether  free  his  books  from  the  trick  caught 
in  his  youth  through  generous  enthusiasm  for  books  glow- 
ing with  true  eloquence. 

Carlyle's  attention  was  fixed  so  exclusively  on  life 
within  each  Man,  that  he  paid  no  regard  at  all  to  the 
National  life  as  it  may  be  said  to  exist  within  a  People. 
His  friend  Joseph  Mazzini,  whose  disposition  was  exactly 
opposite  in  this  respect,  had,  of  course,  a  quick  eye  for 
such  deficiency.  "  Mr.  Carlyle,"  said  Mazzini,  "  com- 
prehends only  the  individual ;  the  true  sense  of  the  unity 
of  the  human  race  escapes  him.  He  sympathizes  with  all 
men,  but  it  is  with  the  separate  life  of  each,  and  not  with 
their  collective  life.  He  readily  looks  at  every  man  as  the 
representative,  the  incarnation,  in  a  manner,  of  an  idea: 
he  does  not  believe  in  a  '  supreme  idea,'  represented  pro- 
gressively by  the  development  of  mankind  taken  as  a  whole. 
.  .  .  The  great  religious  idea,  the  continued  development 
of  Humanity  by  a  collective  labour,  according  to  an 
educational  plan  designed  by  Providence,  finds  but  a  fee- 
ble echo,  or  rather  no  echo  at  all,  in  his  soul.  .  .  .  The 
nationality  of  Italy  is  in  his  eyes  the  glory  of  having  pro- 


276  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ducecl  Dante  and  Christopher  Columbus ;  the  nationality 
of  German}-  that  of  having  given  birth  to  Luther,  to 
Goethe,  and  to  others.  The  shadow  thrown  by  these 
gigantic  men  appears  to  eclipse  from  his  view  every  trace 
of  the  national  thought  of  which  these  men  were  only  the 
interpreters  or  prophets,  and  of  the  people,  who  alone  are 
its  depositary." 

It  is  so.  But  is  it  not  enough  for  one  man  to  uphold 
firmly  throughout  his  life  one  vital  truth?  The  national 
thought  was  in  Carlyle  himself  when  he  became  one  of 
its  prophets.  The  French  Revolution  of  which  he  de- 
scribed so  powerfully  the  wild  tumult  of  the  lives  that 
were  involved  in  it,  though  he  showed  little  knowledge  of 
its  meaning,  by  its  failure  taught  us  our  own  slower  and 
surer  way  to  the  ideal  of  which  it  had  dreamed.  Along 
the  path  first  shown  to  us  by  Wordsworth  Carlyle  followed 
unconsciously,  and  all  the  stress  he  laid  on  the  shaping 
of  each  single  man,  was  simply  such  work  as  the  time 
required.  We  build  a  strong  wall  with  sound  bricks,  a 
strong  state  with  sound  citizens.  It  is  no  reproach  to  the 
brickmaker  that  he  is  not  bricklayer  as  well. 

In  1833-34,  when  Carlyle's  "  Sartor  Resartus  "  was  first 
appearing  in  "  Fraser's  Magazine,"  there  was  quick  move- 
ment in  the  University  of  Oxford  towards  use  of  the 
whole  mechanism  of  the  Church  for  aid  in  the  lifting  of 
the  minds  of  men.  There  was  one  aim  in  men  so  different 
as  Thomas  Carlyle  and  John  Henry  Newman.  Each  said, 
Let  us  put  a  soul  into  our  dead  conventions  and  help  men 
to  live  true  lives  to  highest  aims.  John  Henry  Newman 
was  born  in  1801,  the  son  of  a  banker  in  Lombard  Street. 
He  was  educated  at  Ealing  School  and  elected  to  a  scholar- 
ship in  Trinity  College   Oxford,  when  yet  very  young. 


IN   TTTE  REIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  211 

He  graduated  with  honours  in  1820,  and  obtained  a  Fel- 
lowship at  Oriel.  Newman  had,  with  keen  shrewdness  of 
wit,  a  poet's  nature,  and  he  has  written  some  pieces  of 
good  religious  verse.  Keble's  "  Christian  Year,"  published 
in  1827,  quickened  in  him  the  belief  that  all  the  ancient 
forms  and  institutions  of  the  Church,  restored  to  their 
position  of  pure  spiritual  symbols,  might  cease  to  be  dead 
traditions,  and  give  aid  in  revival  of  the  dying  fire  within 
the  souls  of  Churchmen.  John  Keble's  sermon  on  "  Na- 
tional Apostasy,"  in  1833,  spread  zeal  for  this  revival  of 
religion  among  many  members  of  the  University.  John 
Henry  Newman  suggested  the  issue  of  a  series  of  "  Tracts 
for  the  Times  "  —  some  "  Ad  Clerum  "  and  some  "  Ad  Pop- 
ulum  "  —  to  spread  abroad  the  desire  for  an  escape  from 
formalism  by  deepening  the  general  sense  of  holiness  and 
beauty  in  the  rites  and  ordinances  of  the  Church.  The 
first  Tract,  sold  for  a  penny,  was  addressed  to  the  Clergy. 
It  contained  "  Thoughts  on  the  Ministerial  Commission," 
which  dwelt  upon  the  Apostolical  Succession  of  the  Bish- 
ops, and  sole  priesthood  of  those  whom  bishops  had 
ordained.  At  the  close  of  the  year  1833,  Dr.  Pusey,  Re- 
gius Professor  of  Hebrew  in  the  University,  joined  the 
movement.  Edward  Bouverie  Pusey,  born  in  1800,  had 
been  educated  at  Christ  Church,  and  had  been  elected  to 
a  Fellowship  at  Oriel.  He  became  Regius  Professor  of 
Hebrew  and  Canon  of  Christ  Church  at  the  age  of  28, 
and  was  thirty-three  years  old,  Newman  being  thirty-two, 
when  the  movement  began.  It  was  in  full  force  during 
the  first  years  of  the  Reign  of  Victoria. 

The  new  Oxford  movement  was  stoutly  resisted,  on  the 
ground  that  the  stress  laid  by  it  on  priesthood  and  on 
strictness  of  ceremonial  would   cause   many  to    find   no 


278  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

stopping  place  until  they  entered  the  communion  of  the 
Church  of  Rome.  That  Dr.  Newman  himself,  following 
the  bent  of  a  devout  mind  in  the  direction  to  which  it 
inclined,  did  find  his  way  into  the  Church  of  Rome,  and 
is  now  the  most  distinguished  of  its  Cardinals,  has  justi- 
fied this  opinion.  In  February  1841,  No.  90  of  "  Tracts 
for  the  Times,"  written  by  Dr.  Newman,  contained  "  Re- 
marks on  Certain  Passages  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles," 
in  which  he  argued  that  the  pale  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land was  wide  enough  to  contain  him.  But  Dr.  Newman 
owned  afterwards  that  he  argued  against  doubts  rising 
within  himself.  In  October  1845  he  joined  the  Church  of 
Rome.  The  followers  of  these  new  teachers  were  called 
"  Puseyites  "  and  have  since  been  called  "  Ritualists  "  or 
High  Churchmen,  and  they  have  always  been  a  cause  of 
great  alarm  to  the  large  body  of  Englishmen  who  hold  by 
the  ancient  dread  of  Rome,  and  still  wish  for  a  Church 
based  upon  the  Bible  with  the  least  possible  admixture 
of  human  traditions.  It  is  the  old  contest  of  opinion, 
unchanged  in  spirit,  or  in  the  sincerity  of  combatants  on 
either  side,  that  runs  through  our  History,  and  has  left 
way-marks  in  the  writings  of  Wiclif,  in  Pecock's  "Re- 
pressor," in  Hooker's  "Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  and  many 
another  earnest  utterance.  Opposite  bias  of  mind  in 
brothers  equally  earnest  in  desire  to  be  true  to  their 
deepest  convictions,  has  caused  Francis  Newman,  who  is 
four  years  younger  than  his  brother,  to  quit  the  Church 
of  England  by  a  directly  opposite  door.  His  books  pub- 
lished in  1849  and  1850,  "  the  Soul,  its  Sorrows  and  Aspi- 
rations," and  "  Phases  of  Faith,"  showed  depths  of  earnest 
feeling  in  expression  of  his  doubts.  Dr.  Pusey's  age  was 
37,  Dr.  Newman's  36  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign;  his 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  279 

brother's  32,  and  thirty-two  was  the  age  of  three  other 
men  active  in  Church  questions,  Samuel  Wilberforce, 
Frederick  Denison  Maurice,  and  James  Martineau. 

Samuel  Wilberforce,  third  son  of  the  famous  combatant 
against  slavery,  became  Bishop  of  Oxford  in  1844,  and 
was  soon  distinguished  for  his  vigorous  support  of  those 
who  sought  to  put  new  life  into  religion,  by  strengthening 
the  claims  of  the  English  Church  upon  allegiance  of  the 
people  to  the  clergy,  and  allegiance  of  the  clergy  to  its 
ancient  ritual.  Dr.  Wilberforce,  who  was  distinguished 
in  society  for  many  pleasant  qualities,  was  translated  to 
Winchester  in  1869,  and  died  of  a  fall  from  his  horse  in 
1873.  Asa  writer  he  is  best  known  by  two  small  religious 
story  books,  published  in  1840,  which  are  among  the  best 
of  their  kind,  "Rocky  Island  and  other  Parables,"  and 
"Agathos,  and  other  Sunday  Stories." 

Frederick  Denison  Maurice  was  with  John  Sterling  as 
one  of  the  pupils  of  Julius  Charles  Hare  at  Trinity  Col- 
lege Cambridge.  Julius  Hare,  with  his  brother  Augustus, 
had  published  a  volume  of  Thoughts  called  "  Guesses  at 
Truth  "  in  1827,  the  year  after  he  was  ordained.  Maurice 
and  Sterling  became  bound  more  closely  together  by  mar- 
riage with  two  sisters.  Julius  Hare  became  Archdeacon 
of  Lewes  in  1840,  married  the  sister  of  his  friend  Maurice 
in  1844,  and  died  in  1855.  Maurice,  born  in  1805,  was 
the  son  of  a  Unitarian  Minister.  He  qualified  for  his 
degree  at  Cambridge,  but  could  not,  in  those  days,  take 
it,  because  he  had  scruples  about  subscription  to  the  39 
Articles  of  the  Church  of  England.  He  came  to  London, 
studied  law,  and  wrote  in  journals,  till  the  beginning  of 
1830,  when  he  went  to  Oxford.  There  he  was  drawn  into 
the  Church  of  England  as  the  Castle  of  Unity.     He  grad- 


280  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

uated,  and  was  ordained  in  January  1833.  His  sympathy 
with  Newman  and  his  friends  was  destroyed  by  one  of  the 
"  Tracts  for  the  Times  "  in  which  Dr.  Newman  laid  stress 
upon  Baptism  by  the  Church  as  a  condition  of  Salvation. 
Maurice  published  a  tract  called  "  Subscription  no  Bond- 
age," in  which  the  desire  was  expressed  for  a  wide  com- 
prehension of  many  forms  of  honest  opinion  within  limits 
of  the  Church  of  England.  Broad  Church  was  the  name 
given  to  those  who  laboured  afterwards  with  Maurice,  and 
with  others  like  him,  for  a  large  freedom  of  intellectual 
opinion  upon  matters  of  dogma  where  there  was  one  aspi- 
ration towards  spiritual  fellowship  with  Christ.  Those 
who  represented  the  old  spirit  of  the  Lollards  and  the 
Puritans,  in  dread  of  Romish  ceremonial,  and  who  derived 
from  passages  in  the  New  Testament  a  code  of  doctrines 
which  they  taught  as  vital  truths  of  the  gospel,  which 
they  must  believe  who  would  be  saved,  were  called  Low 
Church  or  Evangelical.  Few  things  have  been  more  con- 
spicuous during  the  Reign  of  Victoria  than  the  slow  but 
constant  advance  towards  a  tolerance  of  the  inevitable 
differences  upon  points  dependent  on  the  bias  of  opinion. 
The  various  communities  of  Christians,  through  the  words 
and  deeds  of  men  like  Frederick  Maurice  are  every  year 
being  drawn  nearer  to  one  another  in  the  bond  of  peace. 
Few  would  dread  in  1881  such  fair  discussion  by  religious 
men  as  raised  a  storm  over  the  "Essays  and  Reviews" 
published  in  1860,  and  the  «  Ecce  Homo  "  of  1866. 

Maurice  married  in  1837,  when  he  was  chaplain  to  Guy's 
Hospital,  and  in  1838  set  forth  his  view  of  a  true  Church 
in  three  volumes  upon  "  The  Kingdom  of  Christ."  In 
May  1840  he  was  appointed  Professor  of  English  Litera- 
ture at  King's  College,  London,  and  in  1846  Professor  of 


IN   TUE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  281 

Ecclesiastical  History  there.  In  1848  lie  was  among  the 
founders  of  the  first  College  in  England  for  the  higher 
Education  of  Women,  Queen's  College  in  Harley  Street, 
of  which  he  was  the  first  Principal.  For  want  of  faith  in 
Eternal  Punishment  shown  in  "  Theological  Essays,"  then 
published,  Frederick  Maurice  was  dismissed  from  his  Pro- 
fessorship at  King's  College  in  1853.  In  1854,  as  the 
result  of  a  movement  which  he  had  been  guiding  for  some 
years,  he  established  a  Working  Men's  College  in  London. 
In  1866  he  was  appointed  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy 
in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  for  which  he  had  proved 
his  fitness  by  valuable  books  upon  the  history  of  Ancient, 
Mediaeval,  and  Modern  Philosophy  published  between  1850 
and  1862.  Among  his  directly  religious  writings  some  of 
the  best  are  in  the  form  of  sermons  delivered  by  him  as 
Lecturer  at  Lincoln's  Inn.     He  died  in  1872. 

James  Martineau,  the  foremost  representative  of  those 
English  Christians  who  openly  repudiate  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity  as  formulated  in  the  Athanasian  creed,  is  a 
younger  brother  of  Harriet  Martineau.  He  was  born  in 
1805  at  Norwich,  educated  at  the  Norwich  Grammar 
School,  at  Dr.  Lant  Carpenter's  school  in  Bristol,  and  at 
Manchester  New  College,  York.  From  1832  to  1857  he 
preached  at  Liverpool ;  then,  in  London.  In  1868  he 
became  Principal  of  Manchester  New  College  in  London. 
In  his  "  Endeavours  after  the  Christian  Life  "  published 
in  two  volumes,  one  in  1843  the  other  in  1847,  the  position 
is  taken  by  which  Dr.  Martineau  abides  in  all  his  writings. 
With  a  fine  intellect  and  much  grace  of  imagination  to 
give  life  to  his  expression  of  deep,  earnest  thought,  he  also 
seeks  the  larger  fellowship  of  Christians  in  a  spiritual 
church. 


282  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Again  there  is  evidence  of  the  difficulty,  even  within 
one  household,  of  keeping  earnest  minds  from  following 
their  own  way  in  pursuit  of  truth.  As  George  Herbert  of 
old,  one  of  the  best  and  purest  of  what  are  now  called 
"High  Churchmen,"  had  for  his  eldest  brother  a  man  who, 
in  religious  spirit,  denied  the  existence  of  a  special  revela- 
tion either  to  the  Jew  or  to  the  Christian ;  as  the  brothers 
John  Heniy  Newman  and  Francis  Newman  went  opposite 
ways ;  so  Harriet  Martineau  lost  before  death  the  faith 
in  which  she  and  her  brother  had  been  bred,  but  lost  no 
part  of  her  desire  towards  the  highest  life. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  the  Reign  of  Victoria,  Miss  Mar- 
tineau enriched  its  Literature  with  many  earnest  books. 
A  novel  on  the  story  of  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  the  slave 
who  called  his  fellows  into  freedom  and  was  crushed  by 
the  power  of  Napoleon,  is  called  "  The  Hour  and  the  Man." 
Wordsworth  had  written  a  sonnet  on  the  fate  of  Toussaint 
L'Ouverture,  and  Miss  Martineau's  novel  was  written 
with  as  generous  a  sympathy.  Her  preceding  novel, 
"  Deerbrook,"  published  in  1839,  paints  English  domestic 
life,  with  the  unobtrusive  spirit  of  duty  that  sustains  its 
charm.  Among  many  good  short  stories  of  Miss  Mar- 
tineau's may  be  named  "  the  Billow  and  the  Rock,"  pub- 
lished in  1846.  A  more  laborious  enterprise,  conceived 
and  undertaken  as  an  aid  to  the  diffusion  of  a  right  sense 
of  what  makes  the  strength  of  nations,  was  her  "  History 
of  the  Thirty  Years'  Peace,  1816-46,"  a  work  planned  and 
begun  by  Charles  Knight  but  mainly  written  by  Miss 
Martineau.  The  book  was  published  in  1850.  In  1853 
Miss  Martineau  published  a  digest  of  Comte's  Positive 
Philosophy.  Such  books  as  "  Household  Education  "  in 
1849,  and  "  Health,  Husbandry  and  Handicraft "  in  1861, 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  283 

indicated  her  continued  interest  in  the  advance  of  knowl- 
edge among  the  people.     She  died  in  June  1876. 

To  the  group  of  writers  who  were  between  thirty  and 
forty  years  old  at  the  accession  of  Victoria  belongs  also 
Edwin  Chad  wick,  who  was  of  the  same  age  as  Harriet 
Martineau.  He  was  in  his  early  life  one  of  the  friends  of 
Jeremy  Bentham,  and  began  his  career  as  a  writer  in  "  the 
Westminster  Review  "  in  1828.  Mr.  Chadwick  has  spent 
a  long  life  in  strenuous  labour  for  the  well-being  of  the 
people,  and  is  working  still.  He  has  given  the  most  direct 
aid  to  Poor  Law  Administration ;  to  the  relief  of  children 
from  undue  labour  in  the  Factories,  and  to  the  education 
of  Factory  children ;  to  the  advance  of  Public  Education 
generally,  and  to  the  advance  of  Public  Health.  He  was 
among  the  first  to  turn  the  public  mind  to  questions  of 
sanitary  reform. 

The  two  wittiest  men  of  this  group,  Thomas  Hood  and 
Douglas  Jerrold,  gave  also  their  best  energy  to  the  en- 
deavour to  reduce  the  evil  done  by  man  to  man.  Thomas 
Hood,  born  in  May  1799,  was  the  son  of  a  London  book- 
seller and  publisher,  of  the  firm  of  Vernor,  Hood  and 
Sharpe,  in  the  Poultry.  His  mother  was  sister  to  an 
engraver  and,  after  some  education  at  a  Clapham  school, 
Hood  was  apprenticed  to  his  uncle.  The  health  of  all  the 
family  was  delicate.  Father  and  elder  brother  died  while 
Thomas  Hood  was  very  young,  then  followed  the  mother, 
and  a  sister,  whose  deathbed  is  the  subject  of  her  brother's 
touching  poem  "  We  watched  her  breathing  through  the 
night." 

The  delicate  health  of  Hood  himself  compelled  him  to 
give  up  work  as  an  engraver.  In  1821  he  was  at  work 
for  the  "  London  Magazine,"  and  in  1824  he  married  a 


284  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

sister  of  John  Hamilton  Reynolds,  one  of  his  fellow-con- 
tributors. He  joined  his  brother-in-law  in  1825  in  pro- 
ducing "  Odes  and  Addresses  to  Great  People,"  which 
attained  great  popularity.  Two  series  of  "Whims  and 
Oddities  "  followed  in  1826  and  1827,  and  in  1827  Hood 
showed  his  grace  as  a  serious  poet  in  a  volume  containing 
"the  Plea  of  the  Midsummer  Fairies"  and  other  pieces. 
In  1829  Hood  published,  in  an  annual  called  "the  Gem," 
the  most  powerful  of  his  serious  poems,  "the  Dream  of 
Eugene  Aram."  At  Christmas  1830,  he  produced  the 
first  volume  of  his  "  Comic  Annual."  The  kindliest  wit 
and  satire,  jokes  poured  out  incessantly  from  pen  and 
pencil,  supplied  the  needs  of  Hood's  household,  while  in 
himself  consumption  was  not  slowly  advancing.  In  1884, 
the  failure  of  a  firm  brought  heavy  loss  upon  him ;  his 
health  also  became  worse,  and  he  went  abroad.  In  1835 
a  son  was  born,  Thomas  Hood  the  younger,  who  died  in 
1874,  and  within  his  short  life  of  forty  years  maintained, 
after  his  father's  death,  by  genial  wit  as  a  comic  writer, 
pleasant  associations  with  an  honoured  name.  In  the 
beginning  of  the  present  reign  Thomas  Hood,  the  father, 
39  years  old,  was  quitting  Coblentz  for  Ostend,  disease 
advancing  rapidly.  He  continued  "the  Comic  Annual" 
as  a  sure  source  of  income ;  published  "  Hood's  Own ;  " 
and  suggested  a  grim  epitaph  for  himself,  "  Here  lies  one 
who  spat  more  blood  and  made  more  puns  than  any  other 
man."  His  "  Up  the  Ehine,"  published  in  1839,  was  very 
successful,  but  troubles  with  publishers  clouded  his  suc- 
cess. In  1840  he  returned  to  London,  and  had  still  to 
earn  by  his  wit.  He  wrote  for  Theodore  Hook  in  "  the 
New  Monthly  Magazine,"  and  upon  Hook's  death,  in  1841, 
became  editor,  with  a  salary  of  £300  a  year,  apart  from 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  285 

payment  for  the  articles  he  wrote.  At  this  time  "  Punch  " 
was  established,  and  a  little  poem  by  Thomas  Hood  call- 
ing for  sympathy  with  the  poor  women  ground  down  by 
employers  of  their  labour  with  the  needle,  —  a  poem  as 
pathetic  as  his  "  Bridge  of  Sighs,"  —  stirred  all  England 
in  1843.  Hood  cared  more  for  the  success  of  this  appeal 
to  humanity  against  "  what  man  has  made  of  man  "  than 
for  all  his  wit  besides,  and  asked  that  it  might  be  written 
over  his  grave  "  He  sang  '  the  Song  of  the  Shirt.' "  In 
January  1844  he  left  "  the  New  Monthly  "  and  established 
a  Magazine  of  his  own,  "Hood's  Magazine."  In  June 
1844  Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  his  own  gracious  way  that 
doubled  the  value  of  such  kindnesses,  secured  to  Mrs. 
Hood  a  pension  of  <£100  from  the  Civil  List,  that  the  poet 
might  die  with  one  earthly  care  the  less.  He  died  on  the 
3d  of  May  1845.  From  Theodore  Hook  to  Thomas  Hood 
was  a  stride  forward  in  civilization  ;  for  it  was  not  in  Hood 
only  that  English  wit  took  the  new  way  of  the  time  and 
laboured  for  the  uplifting  of  the  fallen. 

Douglas  William  Jerrold  was  born  on  the  3d  of  Janu- 
aiy,  1803,  son  of  an  elderly  strolling  actor  by  his  young 
second  wife.  When  he  was  four  years  old,  his  father 
managed  a  theatre  at  Sheerness,  and  he  acted  when  a  child 
was  needed  on  the  stage.  He  was  sent  to  a  school  at 
Sheerness  where  he  was  one  of  a  hundred  boys.  He  was 
handsome,  white-haired,  rosy  cheeked,  a  great  reader ; 
"  the  only  athletic  sport  I  ever  mastered,"  he  said,  "  was 
backgammon."  In  1813,  when  he  was  ten  years  old, 
Douglas  Jerrold  volunteered  as  midshipman  on  board  His 
Majesty's  guardship  "  the  Namur,"  lying  in  the  Nore.  In 
1815,  when  a  little  more  than  twelve  years  old,  he  was 
transferred  to  the  brig  "  Ernest,"  which  brought  in  July 


286  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

to  Sheerness  a  cargo  of  men  wounded  in  battle.  In  the 
following  October,  Jerrold's  experience  as  a  sailor  ended. 
The  war  was  over ;  the  Sheerness  theatre  had  lived  by  it ; 
Jerrold's  father  failed,  and  the  family  removed  to  London, 
where,  in  1816,  Douglas  Jerrold  was  apprenticed  to  a 
printer.  In  1818,  at  fifteen  years  old,  he  wrote  a  farce 
which  was  acted  in  1819,  at  Sadlers'  Wells,  as  "More 
Frightened  than  Hurt."  This  farce  was  translated  into 
French,  and  afterwards  returned  to  the  English  stage  as  a 
translation  from  the  French  under  the  name  of  "  Fighting 
by  Proxy,"  with  Liston  in  its  chief  character.  In  1823, 
young  Jerrold,  twenty  years  old,  shared  Byron's  enthusi- 
asm for  the  cause  of  Greece.  He  was  then  writing  dra- 
matic criticism  in  a  paper  published  by  the  printer  whom 
he  served,  and  also  writing  plays  for  minor  theatres,  "  the 
Smoked  Miser  "  among  them.  In  1824,  aged  21,  he  mar- 
ried. Between  1825  and  1829  he  was  writing  pieces  for 
the  Coburg  and  Sadlers'  Wells  theatres,  and  for  Vauxhall. 
In  1829,  he  was  engaged  by  Elliston  the  actor,  then  man- 
aging the  Surrey  Theatre,  as  Dramatic  Writer  at  a  salary 
of  five  pounds  a  week.  In  that  capacity,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-six,  he  at  once  gave  the  manager  a  prize  in 
"  Black-Eyed  Susan."  This  was  produced  on  Whitmon- 
day  1829,  with  T.  P.  Cooke  as  William.  All  London 
came  to  see  it ;  and  when  fashionable  London  objected  to 
cross  the  Thames,  T.  P.  Cooke  was  engaged  to  play  in 
"  Black-Eyed  Susan  "  every  evening  at  Drury  Lane  after 
it  had  been  acted  at  the  Surrey.  The  piece  produced 
thousands  for  others,  but  for  its  author  only  seventy 
pounds.  Jerrold  himself  laid  no  false  emphasis  on  this 
success.  "  Why,  Douglas,"  said  a  friend,  "  you  will  be  a 
Surrey  Shakespeare!"  "A  sorry  Shakespeare,"  he  re- 
plied. 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  287 

Activity  in  playwriting  was  doubled,  for  Jcrrold  now 
was  in  request  at  all  the  theatres.  In  1835  he  had  four 
plays  being  acted  at  four  London  theatres,  while  doing 
day  work  as  subeditor  of  "  the  Examiner,"  and  writing  for 
"the  Monthly  Magazine."  In  April  1835  he  began  to 
write  for  "  Blackwood's  Magazine "  and  for  the  news- 
papers. In  this  year,  loss  through  default  of  a  friend, 
whom  he  had  helped  too  generously,  brought  Jerrold  into 
difficulty,  and  he  wintered  in  Paris.  In  that  winter  of 
1835,  Thackeray  also  was  in  Paris.  Jerrold  and  he  be- 
came acquainted,  and  when  Jerrold  republished  selections 
from  his  papers  in  "Blackwood"  and  the  "New  Monthly," 
as  "  Men  of  Character,"  in  1838,  Thackeray  furnished 
pictures  to  them.  In  1840  Douglas  Jerrold  edited 
"  Heads  of  the  People,"  a  series  of  pen  sketches  by  the 
artist,  Kenny  Meadows,  with  written  characters  by  Jer- 
rold, Thackeray,  Laman  Blanchard,  and  others. 

In  1841,  when  Jerrold  was  at  Boulogne,  his  friend 
Henry  Mayhew  had  projected  a  weekly  comic  paper  to  be 
called  "  Punch,  or  the  London  Charivari."  Mark  Lemon, 
Gilbert  Abbot  a  Beckett,  and  Stirling  Coyne  were  among 
the  company  who  joined  most  actively  in  its  production, 
and  the  first  number  appeared  on  the  17th  of  July  1841. 
Jerrold  was  asked  to  join,  and  his  first  contribution  ap- 
peared in  the  second  number.  Mark  Lemon,  born  in 
1809,  was  at  first  joint-editor.  He  was  then,  like  Jerrold, 
a  busy  dramatist.  Henry  Mayhew  (born  in  1812,  and 
best  known  for  his  books  based  on  direct  inquiry  into  the 
condition  of  "London  Labour  and  the  London  Poor," 
1851),  presently  retired  from  "Punch."  Mark  Lemon 
became,  and  remained  until  his  death  in  1870,  the  sole 
editor.     Mark  Lemon  was  admirably  fitted  for  the  post, 


288  OF  ENGLISU  LITERATURE 

with  a  mind  broad  as  his  body  —  he  could  play  Falstaff 
without  stuffing  —  a  genial  nature,  good  sense,  and  no 
tendency  whatever  to  look  on  himself  as  chief  contributor, 
he  never  lost  sight  of  Douglas  Jerrold's  warning  that  he 
and  his  staff  must  spend  their  wit  in  aid  of  the  real  inter- 
ests of  life.  For  the  remaining  sixteen  years  of  his  life, 
Jerrold's  writings  associated  in  "  Punch  "  the  keenest  wit 
with  care  for  all  that  was  worthiest  in  life  ;  he  aided  every 
labour  for  the  raising  of  society,  and  lashed  with  his  satire 
all  the  vices  and  the  vanities  by  which  it  is  degraded. 
The  light  humour  of  Thackeray  took  part  in  the  same 
war.  Maginn  joined.  Hood  contributed  his  "Song  of 
the  Shirt."  Shirley  Brooks,  full  of  kindly  courtesies, 
graced  wit  and  humour  with  the  good  taste  that  directed 
all  his  work.  Tom  Taylor's  love  of  Literature  tinged  his 
frequent  verse  with  pleasant  recollections  of  the  poets. 
Year  after  year  in  "  Punch  "  the  wit  was  keen,  the  humour 
true.  Artists  of  high  mark,  Richard  Doyle,  John  Leech, 
and  others,  held  their  ground  beside  the  writers,  and  the 
wits  were  among  foremost  combatants  in  the  great  battle 
of  life.  John  Tenniel  set  aside  other  ambition  and  made 
a  place  of  his  own  in  the  History  of  Art  as  producer, 
week  after  week,  of  cartoons,  in  which  one  of  the  best 
English  artists  is  still  joining  wit  of  invention  to  a  sus- 
tained worthiness  of  purpose. 

Upon  Mark  Lemon's  death,  in  1870,  Charles  Shirley 
Brooks  succeeded  him  as  Editor  of  "  Punch."  His  kindly 
wit  was  spent  in  its  service  until  his  death  in  1874.  He 
was  born  in  1815,  and  left  training  for  the  law  to  write 
plays ;  reported  also  to  "  the  Morning  Chronicle  "  on  the 
condition  of  the  peasantry  in  southern  Russia.  He  wrote 
also  some  good  novels.     Tom  Taylor,  the  next  editor  of 


IN  TUE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  289 

"  Punch,"  was  born  at  Sunderland  in  1817.  Ho  was  edu- 
cated at  the  University  of  Glasgow  and  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  and  called  to  the  bar  of  the  Inner  Temple  in 
1845.  In  1850  he  was  appointed  Assistant  Secretary,  and 
in  1854  Secretary,  to  the  Board  of  Health,  which  office  he 
held  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  July  1880.  Tom  Taylor 
also  held  the  office  of  Professor  of  English  Literature  at 
University  College  from  1844  to  1847.  He  was  the  most 
successful  dramatist  of  his  time.  The  greater  number  of 
his  pieces  were  original.  He  showed  skill  in  adapting 
them  to  the  powers  of  the  actors  by  whom  they  were  to 
be  represented,  and  they  cover  the  whole  range  of  expres- 
sion, from  pathos  to  the  broadest  farce.  With  his  love  of 
Literature  was  associated  love  of  art,  and  he  was  well 
known  among  the  painters  as  a  genial  and  cultivated  critic 
of  their  work  in  columns  of  "  the  Times."  Among  his 
books  is  one,  published  in  1865,  on  the  "  Life  and  Times 
of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds :  with  Notices  of  some  of  his 
Contemporaries,  commenced  by  Charles  Robert  Leslie, 
R.  A.,  continued  and  concluded  by  Tom  Taylor."  Tom 
Taylor's  successor  in  the  editing  of  Punch  is  Francis 
Cowley  Burnand,  born  in  1837,  and  educated  at  Eton  and 
Trinity  College  Cambridge.  He  also  has  been  a  very  suc- 
cessful writer  for  the  stage,  and  must  already  have  made, 
with  unfailing  good  humour,  more  jokes  than  Thomas 
Hood,  although  he  has  not  written  a  "  Bridge  of  Sighs  " 
or  a  "  Song  of  the  Shirt." 

In  the  spirit  that  Douglas  Jerrold  put  into  "  Punch  "  he 
wrote  for  it  until  within  ten  days  of  his  death.  In  1844 
he  contributed  to  it  "  Mrs.  Caudle's  Curtain  Lectures," 
followed  by  "  Punch's  Complete  Letter  Writer."  In  1843 
he  founded  and  edited  "  the  Illuminated  Magazine,"  which 


290  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

lived  two  years,  and  contributed  to  it  "Chronicles  of 
Clovernook."  In  1845  followed  Douglas  Jerrold's  "  Shil- 
ling: Magazine,"  in  which  he  wrote  "  St.  Giles  and  St. 
James,"  showing  with  all  his  wit  and  earnestness  "  what 
man  has  made  of  man."  In  1851  he  followed  the  way  of 
publishing  a  novel  in  monthly  numbers,  which  had  been 
established  by  the  success  of  Pickwick,  in  "  the  Man  made 
of  Money,"  a  pleasant  working  out  of  the  fancy  that  a  man 
really  made  of  money,  who  could  peel  at  will  a  banknote 
from  his  person,  would  not  be  suffered  to  grow  stout  in 
this  world  of  ours,  as  we  have  made  it.  In  1852,  Jerrold's 
position,  as  a  foremost  wit  who  had  throughout  his  life 
been  labouring  for  the  advancement  of  the  people,  caused 
an  offer  to  be  made  to  him  of  a  thousand  a  year  for  his 
services  as  editor  of  a  penny  newspaper  "  Lloyd's  Weekly 
News,"  designed  for  widest  diffusion.  He  accepted  that 
trust,  and  made  worthy  use  of  his  opportunity.  Douglas 
Jerrold  died  in  June  1857  leaving,  like  Hood,  a  son  behind 
him  to  maintain  in  Literature  the  credit  of  his  name.  His 
flashes  of  social  wit  are  still  remembered  and  told  again. 
The  sharpest  sayings  were  those  levelled  in  good  humour 
at  friends  who  knew  the  kind  heart  underneath  the  play- 
ful malice,  for  Jerrold  was  essentially  gentle  and  high- 
minded.  To  the  young  men  who  gathered  about  him  in 
his  home,  he  would  quote  often  for  kindly  encouragement 
Wordsworth's  wise  phrase  :  "  '  Plain  living  and  high  think- 
ing,' "  he  would  say ;  "  make  that  your  motto." 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA,  291 


CHAPTER  XL 

ONWARD  BATTLE. 

Of  Carlyle's  articles  in  the  "  Edinburgh  Review " 
Macaulay  wrote  to  the  Editor,  "As  to  Carlyle,  he  might 
as  well  write  in  Irving's  unknown  tongue  at  once."  Car- 
lyle's insight  into  Macaulay  was  implied  once  in  his  advice 
to  an  invalid,  to  read  "the  last  volume  of  Macaulay's 
History,  or  any  other  new  novel."  The  great  charm  of 
Macaulay's  writing  lies,  indeed,  in  a  faculty  akin  to  that 
of  the  novelist.  The  following  passage  is  from  a  journal 
kept  by  his  sister  Margaret,  "  I  said  that  I  was  surprised 
at  the  great  accuracy  of  his  information,  considering  how 
desultory  his  reading  had  been.  '  My  accuracy  as  to  facts,' 
he  said,  'I  owe  to  a  cause  which  many  men  would  not 
confess.  It  is  due  to  my  love  of  castle  building.  The 
past  is  in  my  mind  soon  constructed  into  a  romance.  .  .  . 
Precision  in  dates,  the  day  or  hour  in  which  a  man  was 
born  or  died,  becomes  absolutely  necessary.  A  slight 
fact,  a  sentence,  a  word,  are  of  importance  in  my  romance. 
Pepys's  Diary  formed  almost  inexhaustible  food  for  my 
fancy.  I  seem  to  know  every  inch  of  Whitehall.  I  go  in 
at  Hans  Holbein's  gate,  and  come  out  through  the  matted 
gallery.' '  This  habit  of  realizing  history  to  his  imagi- 
nation, which  Macaulay  had  from  childhood  and  which 
strengthened  with  use,  was  aided  by  the  absence  of  all 
qualities  that  could  have  interfered  with  it.     He  had  no 


292  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

depths,  except  his  depths  of  home  affection  in  a  genial, 
happy  honest  nature.  He  read  eagerly,  remembered  easily, 
wove  together  pieces  of  his  reading  with  rare  cleverness 
into  clear  conceptions,  till  he  saw  in  his  own  mind  men 
of  the  past  living  and  acting,  almost  heard  them  speak ; 
and  then  he  reproduced  his  own  perceptions  in  words 
that  required  no  thinking  to  understand.  Beyond  this,  it 
might  almost  be  said  that  Macaulay  did  not  think.  Lights 
and  shades  of  truth,  reservations,  subtle  questionings,  per- 
ceptions of  the  mysteries  of  life  in  men  and  nations,  never 
troubled  him.  He  read  pamphlets  by  the  thousand  to 
produce  his  history ;  he  made  the  most  careful  inquiries 
upon  little  points  that  must  be  cleared  up  to  secure  full 
sense  of  lifelike  movement  to  his  narrative ;  and  thus  it 
is  no  dead  picture  that  he  paints.  There  must  be  an 
undying  charm  in  work  so  done  by  such  a  man ;  never- 
theless its  strength  lies  in  the  quality  that  caused  Carlyle 
to  recommend  to  an  invalid  "  the  last  volume  of  Macau- 
lay's  History,  or  any  other  novel."  If  the  stream  ran 
clear  it  was  shallow,  and  to  the  multitude  the  History 
was  good  because  it  put  scenes  of  life  into  their  minds 
without  requiring  them  to  think  much  as  they  read.  The 
view  taken  of  any  man  or  incident  was  habitually  that 
which  accorded  with  the  writer's  predilections  and  which 
could  most  readily  take  shape  in  his  own  imagination. 
Complaints  founded  upon  the  historian's  misreading  of 
facts  were  many.  In  1861  Mr.  John  Paget  gathered  five 
of  the  most  conspicuous  into  a  book  called  "the  New 
Examen,"  after  Roger  North's  "  Examen  "  of  White  Ken- 
nett's  History. 

Macaulay's    "Lays   of    Ancient    Rome,"   published   in 
1842,  are  full  of  the  life  and  heat  of  the  old  ballad  style, 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  293 

true  ballads,  with  quick  perception,  clear  realization,  a 
full  sweep  of  animated  verse  accordant  to  each  story ; 
and  they  are  all  story,  as  they  ought  to  be.  In  1843 
Macaulay's  Essays  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  were  repub- 
lished by  himself.  In  July  1847,  after  a  dissolution  of 
Parliament,  Macaulay  was  rejected  at  Edinburgh  for  his 
generous  advocacy  of  a  grant  to  the  Irish  Roman  Catholic 
College  at  Maynooth.  He  had  been  giving  divided  alle- 
giance to  Politics  and  Literature,  but  he  now  resolved  to 
make  a  pure  pursuit  of  Literature  the  pleasure  and  the 
duty  of  his  life.  He  expressed  his  feeling  in  some  lines 
written  on  the  night  of  the  defeat,  in  which  he  pictured 
the  Fairy  Queens  of  Gain,  Fashion  and  Power  visiting 
him,  as  he  lay  newborn  in  his  cradle  at  Rothley  Temple, 
and  passing  by  with  scorn  ;  but  dwelt  on  the  blessing  of  the 
glorious  Lady  with  the  eyes  of  light  and  laurels  on  her 
brow.  It  is  the  most  thoughtful  and  real  of  all  Macau- 
lay's  pieces  of  verse,  and  has  great  interest  as  genuine 
expression  —  marred  only  by  two  rhetorical  stanzas  about 
"Thule's  winter"  and  "the  tiger's  lair"  —  cf  deep  and 
noble  feeling  at  a  turning  point  of  life.  The  conception 
of  the  poem  is  based  upon  memory  of  a  piece  by  his  old 
friend  Praed,  entitled  "  Childhood  and  his  Visitors."  In 
1848  appeared  the  first  two  volumes  of  Macaulay's  "  His- 
tory of  England  from  the  Accession  of  James  II."  Its 
success  was  enormous  and  immediate.  In  July  1852 
Macaulay  was  re-elected  for  Edinburgh.  Towards  the 
close  of  1855  the  third  and  fourth  volumes  of  the  History 
appeared.  A  cheque  for  <£  20,000  represented  his  share 
of  the  profits  of  the  History  in  1856.  In  August  1857 
he  accepted  the  offer  of  a  peerage  and  became  Baron 
Macaulay  of  Rothley.     He  died  on  the  28th  of  December 


294  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

1859,  leaving  a  fifth  volume  of  the  History  to  be  pub- 
lished after  his  death.  The  affection  he  inspired  colours 
delightfully  the  sketch  of  Lord  Macaulay's  Life  published 
in  1876  by  his  nephew,  George  Otto  Trevelyan.  This  is, 
indeed,  one  of  the  best  biographies  to  be  found  in  the 
Literature  of  the  present  reign. 

Thomas  Love  Peacock,  who  was  born  in  1785  and  died 
in  1866,  was  in  his  earlier  years  a  friend  of  Shelley's,  and 
obtained  in  1818  an  appointment  in  the  India  House.  He 
left  verse-writing  for  pure  fiction,  beginning  with  "  Head- 
long Hall "  in  1816.  After  long  rest  upon  a  reputation 
for  his  wit  and  fancy  as  a  satirist,  he  produced  "  Gryll 
Grange  "  in  1861,  at  the  age  of  76,  and  published  in  the 
following  year  a  translation  of  "  GF  Ingannati,"  a  Comedy 
performed  at  Siena  in  1531,  which  had  been  cited  in  1602 
for  its  resemblance  to  Shakespeare's  "  Twelfth  Night." 

The  novelists  between  thirty  and  forty  years  old  at 
the  beginning  of  the  reign  were  —  Robert  Bell  and  Cath- 
erine Crowe,  37 ;  Charles  Lever,  34  ;  Benjamin  Disraeli, 
33;  William  Harrison  Ainsworth  and  Edward  Lytton 
Bulwer,  32;  Samuel  Warren,  31.  Robert  Bell,  born  at 
Cork  in  1800,  came  to  London  in  1828  after  editing  a 
newspaper  in  Dublin,  and  until  his  death  in  1867  worked 
in  London  to  good  purpose  as  an  energetic  man  of  letters. 
He  began  by  editing  a  paper  called  "  the  Atlas,"  and  gave 
it  a  distinctly  literary  tone.  He  afterwards  edited  other 
journals,  wrote  for  "  Lardner's  Cyclopaedia "  several  vol- 
umes of  History  and  Biography,  wrote  three  Comedies, 
"Marriage"  in  1842,  "Mother  and  Daughter"  in  1844, 
and  "Temper"  in  1845;  two  novels,  "The  Ladder  of 
Gold  "  in  1850,  and  "  Hearts  and  Altars  "  in  1852  ;  and 
a  "  Life  of  Canning  "  in  1846.     He  also  planned  and  exe- 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  YICTOMA.  295 

cuted  an  "  Annotated  Edition  of  the  English  Poets  "  in 
half  crown  volumes,  well  printed  upon  good  paper,  each 
poet's  works  being  prefaced  with  a  biographical  and 
critical  introduction  and  interpreted  throughout,  where 
necessary,  by  free  annotation.  This  enterprise  was  begun 
in  1854,  long  before  the  conception  of  the  admirable 
"  Globe  "  editions  through  which  Messrs.  Macmillan  pub- 
lish their  well  edited  cheap  volumes  of  the  English  clas- 
sics. Robert  Bell  lived  the  vigorous  and  healthy  life  of 
a  true  man  of  letters  who  left  the  world  something  the 
better  for  his  having  lived  in  it. 

Catherine  Crowe  was  born  in  1800,  and  as  Catherine 
Stevens  married  Lieut.  Colonel  Crowe  in  1822.  She 
began  work  as  a  writer  in  1838,  with  a  published  tragedy, 
"  Aristodemus."  As  novelist  she  made  her  first  success 
with  "Susan  Hopley,"  since  turned  into  a  melodrama 
that  has  won  much  favour  on  the  stage.  "Lily  Dawson" 
followed  in  1847 ;  next  year  she  translated  "  the  Seeress 
of  Prevorst,"  and,  turning  to  studies  of  the  supernatural 
in  which  her  fancy  took  delight,  she  produced  in  1848 
"the  Nightside  of  Nature."  In  subsequent  books  Mrs. 
Crowe  followed,  but  not  exclusively,  this  path  of  fancy, 
and  she  died  in  1876. 

Charles  James  Lever,  born  in  Dublin  in  1806,  took  the 
degree  of  Bachelor  of  Medicine  in  Trinity  College  Dub- 
lin, and  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  at  Gottingen.  In  the  first 
year  of  the  reign  of  Victoria  he  began  to  write  in  "  the 
Dublin  University  Magazine  "  an  Irish  novel,  full  of  high 
spirits  and  suggestions  of  practical  jokes,  called  "the 
Confessions  of  Harry  Lorrequer."  Lever  was  for  three 
years  physician  to  the  British  Embassy  at  Brussels,  and 
held  that  office  when  he  produced  his  next  novel  "  Charles 


296  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

O'Malley,  the  Irish  Dragoon  "  in  1841.  From  1842  until 
1845  he  edited  the  Magazine  in  which  he  had  made  his 
first  success.  Afterwards  he  held  various  posts  abroad, 
and  poured  out  novel  after  novel,  well  flavoured  with 
dashing  military  adventure  and  Irish  fun.  He  died  at 
Trieste  in  1872. 

Benjamin  Disraeli,  born  on  the  21st  of  December,  1804, 
son  of  Isaac  D'Israeli  who  wrote  the  "  Curiosities  of  Liter- 
ature," died  Earl  of  Beaconsfield  in  April  1881,  after 
shaping  for  himself,  by  the  vigour  of  his  own  genius,  as 
leader  of  one  of  the  two  great  parties  in  the  state,  a  large 
place  in  the  History  of  England.  Political  satire  abounds 
in  his  novels,  of  which  the  earliest,  read  by  the  light  of 
his  later  achievements,  shadow  forth  some  of  the  dreams 
that  grew  to  substance  as  he  grew  to  power.  His  first 
novel  "  Vivian  Grey  "  appeared  in  1826  ;  "  Captain  Pop- 
anilla  "  followed  in  1828.  Then  came  "  the  Youn<r  Duke ;  " 
"Contarini  Fleming;"  "Alroy;"  and  in  1834  "the 
Revolutionary  Epic."  In  the  present  reign  his  chief 
novels  were  "Henrietta  Temple  "  and  "Venetia,"  1837; 
"Coningsby,"  1844;  "Sybil,"  1845;  "Tancred,"  1847; 
"Lothair,"in  1870  and  "  Endymion,"  in  1880.  He  pub- 
lished also  a  tragedy,  "  Count  Alarcos,"  in  1839,  a  "  Politi- 
cal Biography  of  Lord  George  Bentinck,"  in  1852,  and 
edited  his  father's  works  in  1858. 

William  Harrison  Ainsworth,  eldest  son  of  a  Manchester 
lawyer,  was  born  in  1805,  educated  at  the  Manchester 
Grammar  School,  and  at  first  bred  to  the  law.  He  pub- 
lished a  Romance,  "  Sir  John  Chiverton,"  before  he  was 
of  age,  married  at  21  a  publisher's  daughter,  and  made 
Literature  his  one  profession  after  the  success  of  his  novel 
of  "  Rookwood,"  published  in  1834.     "  Crichton  "  followed 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  297 

in  1837,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  Reign  Ainsworth  had 
taken  his  position  firmly  as  a  novelist.  In  1840  he  suc- 
ceeded Charles  Dickens  as  editor  of  "  Bentley's  Miscel- 
lany," owing  that  position  to  the  great  success  of  his  novel 
of  "  Jack  Sheppard,"  which  began  to  appear  in  the  Miscel- 
lany in  January  1839,  with  illustrations  by  George  Cruik- 
shank.  The  novelist  was  hardly  answerable  for  the 
manner  in  which  his  work  was  dramatised  for  most  of  the 
minor  theatres,  and  received  in  that  form  by  the  ignorant. 
It  was  said  of  his  book  that  it  made  house-breakers,  as  it 
was  said  of  Schiller's  first  play  that  it  made  robbers.  Mr. 
Ainsworth's  next  subjects  were  "  The  Tower  of  London," 
1840;  «  Old  St.  Paul's,"  and  "Guy  Fawkes,"  1841;  "the 
Miser's  Daughter,"  1842;  "Windsor  Castle,"  1843;  "St, 
James's,"  1844 ;  "  James  II.,"  1848  ;  "  Lancashire  Witches," 
1849,  and  many  more,  the  series  being  continued  till  the 
present  day,  when  William  Harrison  Ainsworth  is  a  novel- 
ist aged  78,  still  true  to  his  own  chosen  form  of  art.  His 
novels,  though  readers  have  turned  now  to  tales  of  another 
fashion,  have  never  been  without  the  merit  of  great  skill 
in  the  shaping  of  a  story  from  historical  material  well 
studied  and  understood.  Ainsworth's  strength  has  lain  in 
the  union  of  good,  honest  antiquarian  scholarship  with  art 
in  the  weaving  of  romance  that  is  enlivened  and  not  bur- 
dened by  his  knowledge  of  the  past. 

Edward  George  Earle  Lytton  Bulwer,  afterwards  Lord 
L}*tton,  was  the  son  of  General  Bulwer,  and  his  mother 
was  heiress  of  one  of  the  Lyttons  of  Knebworth  in  Hamp- 
shire. He  graduated  at  Cambridge  in  1826,  began  to 
publish  when  he  was  fifteen,  but  obtained  his  first  success 
in  1827  with  a  novel  called  "Pelham,  or  the  Adventures 
of  a  Gentleman."     The  success  was  followed  up.     Other 


298  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

tales  succeeded  rapidly ;  "  the  Disowned  "  in  1828 ;  "  Dev- 
ereux"  in  1829;  "Paul  Clifford"  in  1830;  "Eugene 
Aram  "  in  1832.  Paul  Clifford  was  a  sentimental  high- 
wayman, and  Eugene  Aram  a  sentimental  murderer ;  but 
if  these  novels  suggested  question,  they  were  followed 
by  two  of  entirely  healthy  sentiment,  "the  Last  Days 
of  Pompeii "  in  1834,  and  « Rienzi  "  in  1835.  In  1837 
followed  "Ernest  Maltravers,"  and  in  1838  its  sequel, 
"  Alice,  or  the  Mysteries."  Thus  at  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  the  writer  then  familiarly  known  as  Bulwer  was 
firmly  established  in  the  first  rank  of  the  living  novelists. 
The  rise  of  Charles  Dickens,  in  1836,  and  the  great  popu- 
larity soon  afterwards  acquired  by  fiction  of  another 
school,  would  have  drawn  away  large  numbers  of  Bul- 
wer's  readers,  had  he  been  less  versatile.  But  in  1838  he 
broke  new  ground  and  produced  an  acted  play,  "  the  Lady 
of  Lyons,"  that  in  spite  of  artificial  sentiment,  and  a  plot 
turning  upon  an  unmanly  fraud,  touched  the  old  chord  of 
revolutionary  sentiment  and,  by  help  of  clever  dramatic 
construction,  set  it  vibrating  again.  "The  Lady  of  Lyons" 
has  held  the  stage  throughout  the  reign.  "  Richelieu " 
followed  in  the  next  year,  a  play  hardly  less  successful. 
"  Richelieu  "  has  also  kept  the  stage.  Then  followed  "  the 
Sea  Captain,"  and  in  1840  "Money,"  a  comedy ;  also  novels, 
—  "Night  and  Morning,"  "  Zanoni,"  "the  Last  of  the 
Barons,"  —  all  successes.  Then  followed  satire  in  verse, 
"  the  New  Timon,"  with  no  great  success ;  a  novel  "  Lu- 
cretia  "  of  which  the  tendency  was  open  to  question  ;  and, 
in  1849,  "  the  Caxtons  "  a  novel  with  a  complete  change 
of  method  to  the  use  of  humour  imitated  from  the  style 
of  Sterne.  About  the  same  time  an  ambitious  attempt 
was  made  upon  Epic  poetry,  with  "King  Arthur"  for 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  299 

theme  and  an  entirely  new  set  of  allegorical  adventures  in 
place  of  the  old  story.  There  were  more  books  than 
these,  and  to  the  last  the  literary  energy  was  working. 
Bulwer  entered  Parliament  in  1832  and  was  one  of  the 
first  and  chief  opponents  of  what  were  called  the  Taxes 
upon  Knowledge.  He  obtained  a  baronetcy  in  1838 ;  suc- 
ceeded to  the  Kneb worth  estates  in  1841,  and  took  the 
name  of  Lytton;  was  raised  to  the  peerage,  as  Lord  Lyt- 
ton,  in  18G6 ;  and  died  in  1872.  Bulwer  was  married  in 
1827  to  an  Irish  lady  who  separated  from  him  and  satir- 
ized him  in  a  novel  called  "  Cheveley." 

His  son,  Robert,  the  second  Lord  Lytton,  who  was 
Governor  General  of  India  under  the  administration  of 
Lord  Beaconsfield  and  was  raised  in  1880  to  an  Earldom, 
has  distinguished  himself  in  Literature  under  the  name 
of  "  Owen  Meredith."  Beginning  in  1855  with  "  Clytem- 
ne'stra"and  other  Poems,  followed  by  "the  Wanderer" 
in  1859,  a  novel  in  verse,  "  Lucile,"  in  1860,  and  other 
volumes,  of  which  the  "  Chronicles  and  Characters,"  pub- 
lished in  1868  are  the  most  important,  the  second  Lord 
Lytton  has  taken  a  place  of  honour  among  living  verse- 
writers.  Without  his  father's  versatility  of  power,  he  has 
much  more  than  his  father's  gift  of  song. 

An  elder  brother  of  Bulwer's,  Sir  Henry  Lytton  Bulwer, 
who  was  active  in  the  diplomatic  service,  was  raised  to 
the  peerage  in  1871  as  Lord  Dalling,  and  died  in  1872, 
also  obtained  distinction  as  a  writer. 

Samuel  Warren,  born  in  1807  in  Denbighshire,  the  son 
of  a  Rev.  Dr.  Warren,  was  educated  at  the  University  of 
Edinburgh  and  turned  from  the  study  of  Medicine  to  that 
of  Law.  He  became  Queen's  Counsel,  Recorder  of  Hull, 
and  Master  in  Lunacy ;  wrote  legal  books ;  and  died  in 


300  OF  ENGLISH  LITEEATUIiE 

1877.  At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  Samuel  Warren  pub- 
lished, in  1838-40,  a  series  of  tales  or  sketches  of  life 
called  "  the  Diary  of  a  late  Physician  "  which  first  appeared 
in  "  Blackwood's  Magazine."  In  this  there  were  touches 
of  pathos ;  and  there  was  comic  power  in  his  very  success- 
ful novel  "  Ten  Tousand  a  Year,"  which  followed  in  1841. 
"  Now  and  Then,"  in  1848,  sustained  the  author's  credit ; 
but  in  1851  the  opening  of  the  Great  Exhibition  suggested 
a  rhapsody  of  neither  prose  nor  verse  called  "the  Lily  and 
the  Bee  "  that  showed  how  a  clever  novelist  with  a  good 
sense  of  the  ridiculous,  and  a  clear  headed  lawyer  to  boot, 
may  make  himself  ridiculous  by  failing  to  see  the  limits 
of  his  power. 

There  were  not  many  poets  among  the  writers  who  were 
between  thirty  and  forty  years  old  at  the  time  of  her 
Majesty's  accession.  Human  powers  are  called  forth  by  the 
conditions  of  the  life  about  them.  Those  conditions  are 
to  the  mind  and  character  of  man  in  the  days  of  his  youth 
as  soil  to  seed.  Seed  that  would  j'ield  a  Milton  might 
possibly  fall  on  stony  places  by  the  wayside,  or  on  ground 
so  poor  that  the  weak  growth  barely  suggests  the  strength 
and  beauty  of  the  shoot  that  elsewhere,  "bore  a  bright 
golden  flower,  but  not  in  this  soil."  It  is  not  worldly 
prosperity  that  gives  the  required  conditions.  Adversity 
often  helps  better  to  that  stirring  of  the  depths  which 
must  come  to  a  man  in  his  youth  if  he  shall  be  in  later 
years  a  man  indeed.  Happy  the  man  so  born  that  he 
passes  from  childhood  to  maturity,  through  times  in  which 
all  faculties  are  awakened  by  keen  private  or  public 
struggle,  towards  some  aim  for  which  he  cares,  and  ought 
to  care,  with  his  whole  soul.  Under  such  conditions  the 
great  periods  of  Literature  have  always  been  produced. 


IN   TUE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  301 

The  golden  time  of  our  modern  Literature,  early  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century,  we  owe,  in  all  its  forms,  to  stir  of 
the  French  Revolution  quickening  the  minds  of  men. 
England,  in  the  time  of  George  IV.,  was  a  field  with  its 
last  harvest  cleared,  becoming  overrun  with  weeds,  and 
waiting  for  renewal  of  the  discipline  of  plough  and  harrow. 
Plough  and  harrow  came.  Expansion  of  thought  and  en- 
largement of  the  bounds  of  energy  by  development  of  the 
railway  system  after  1829 ;  the  whole  stir  associated  with 
the  new  French  Revolution  of  1830 ;  the  English  Reform 
Bill  of  1832  ;  the  energetic  efforts  towards  better  educa- 
tion of  the  People,  and  better  care  of  the  poor  ;  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  British  Colonies  in  1834 ;  tumults  of  thought 
raised  by  the  Chartists  in  1838;  the  Anti-Corn-Law-League 
in  1839 ;  O'Connell's  Repeal  agitation ;  Famine  in  Ire- 
land ;  Father  Mathew's  apostleship  of  Temperance  ;  the 
French  Revolution  of  1848,  deepening  throughout  Europe 
every  feeling  that  was  associated  with  the  social  struggles 
of  the  time,  these  indicate  only  a  few  furrows  that  broke 
up  the  hardening  soil,  and  prepared  it  for  a  better  crop 
of  writers  in  those  who  were  between  twenty  and  thirty 
years  old  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign.  Tennyson,  Glad- 
stone and  Charles  Darwin,  all  of  like  age,  were  then 
eight  and  twenty ;  Mrs.  Browning  was  of  about  the  same 
age ;  Browning  and  Thackeray  were  six  and  twenty ; 
Dickens  was  five  and  twenty. 

The  best  poetry  produced  by  writers  of  the  preceding 
decade  of  years  was  dramatic.  Henry  Taylor,  born  at 
Durham  in  1800,  entered  the  Colonial-Office  in  1824,  was 
a  friend  and  disciple  of  Southey's,  had  already  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  reign  won  high  reputation  as  a  poetical 
dramatist,  earned  by  his  "  Isaac  Comnenus,"  in  1832,  and 


302  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

more  especially  by  his  larger  dramatic  poem,  "  Philip  van 
Arteveltle,"  in  1834.  This  was  dedicated  to  Southey,  and 
in  its  preface  advocated  union  of  reason  with  imagination 
against  poetry  that,  like  Byron's,  painted,  Henry  Taylor 
said,  selfish  passions  of  men  in  whom  all  is  vanity,  or 
poetry  shaped  by  the  more  powerful  and  expansive  imagi- 
nation of  Shelley,  whose  disciples  he  called  followers  of 
the  Phantastic  School.  "  Philip  van  Artevelde  "  remains 
its  author's  master-piece.  It  has  one  clear  conception  em- 
bodied in  two  plays  full  of  a  sedate  dignity  and  beauty,  is 
poetic  in  conception  and  construction,  and  not  without  a 
touch  or  two  of  pathos  in  the  equable  and  noble  strain  of 
a  music  that  is  not  strongly  emotional.  Henry  Taylor's 
dramatic  works  in  the  reign  of  Victoria  have  been  "  Edwin 
the  Fair,"  in  1842,  "the  Virgin  Widow,"  in  1850,  and  in 
1862  "St.  Clement's  Eve,"  with  its  scene  laid  in  mediaeval 
France.  Sir  Henry  Taylor  was  knighted  in  1873  for  his 
services  at  the  Colonial-Office. 

A  somewhat  older  writer,  Thomas  Noon  Talfourd,  born 
at  Reading  in  1795,  the  son  of  a  brewer,  became  a  distin- 
guished lawyer,  and  wrote  three  poetical  plays  that  were 
illustrated  by  the  genius  of  Macready,  the  chief  actor  of 
their  day.  The  first  was  the  best,  "  Ion,"  first  acted  in 
May  1836.  At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  Macready  was 
endeavouring  to  establish  the  poetical  drama  at  Covent 
Garden  Theatre,  and  Talfourd's  second  play,  "  the  Athe- 
nian Captive,"  again  upon  a  great  classical  theme,  came 
to  him  in  1838  as  a  disappointment,  for  it  wanted,  he 
thought,  stage  effect,  and  did  not  give  chief  prominence 
to  his  own  part.  The  poet  had  to  alter  the  play  much 
before  its  production,  but  he  afterwards  printed  it  with 
his  original  close. 


IN   THE  BEIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  303 

The  living  dramatists  upon  whom  Macready  chiefly 
depended  in  his  Covent  Garden  management  were  Bul- 
wer,  Talfourd  and  Sheridan  Knowles.  Bulwcr's  "  Lady 
of  Lyons"  and  "Richelieu"  and  Talfourd's  "Ion"  then 
first  declared  them  dramatists.  James  Sheridan  Knowles, 
an  older  man,  who  was  born  at  Cork  in  1784  and  died  in 
1862,  had  been  known  to  Macready  since  1820.  In  that 
year  the  MS.  of  "  Virginius  "  was  sent  to  him  by  a  friend 
at  Glasgow,  with  account  of  the  success  of  the  play  at  the 
Glasgow  theatre.  The  play  was  then  produced  at  Covent 
Garden,  with  Charles  Kemble  and  Miss  Foote  among  its 
actors,  as  well  as  Macready,  who  delighted  in  the  part  of 
Virarinius,  and  to  whom  Sheridan  Knowles  became  thence- 
forth  a  dramatic  poet  laureate.  Although  his  style  as  a 
poet  was  but  weakly  imitative  of  our  elder  drama,  Sher- 
idan Knowles  had  skill  in  the  construction  of  his  plots, 
and  that  quick  sense  of  stage  effect  which  gratifies  an 
actor  who  must  needs  think  of  the  figure  he  will  make 
upon  the  stage.  Knowles's  "William  Tell"  had  been 
written  in  1825.  "The  Hunchback"  was  produced  in 
1832,  and  another  very  successful  comedy,  produced  under 
Victoria,  was  "  the  Love  Chase,"  in  the  first  year  of  the 
reign.  Talfourd's  third  play,  "  Glencoe,"  was  shown  to 
Macready  by  Charles  Dickens  as  work  of  a  stranger, 
accepted  on  its  merits,  and  acted  at  the  Haymarket  The- 
atre in  1840.  The  name  of  the  author  was  withheld  also 
from  the  public  until  after  the  play  had  succeeded.  This 
was  designed  as  a  suggestion  to  the  unacted  dramatists, 
who  were  then  loudly  complaining  of  neglect. 

The  most  remarkable  instance  of  the  influence  of  the 
Elizabethan  drama  on  the  minds  of  men  who  were  looking 
back   to  the  old  vigorous  Literature  of  the  days  before 


304  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

the  Commonwealth,  was  a  wildly  poetical  play  called 
"  Death's  Jest  Book,  or  the  Fool's  Tragedy,"  by  Thomas 
Lovell  Beddoes,  which  was  published  in  1850,  after  the 
death  of  its  author,  and  followed  by  his  "  Poems "  in 
1851.  The  play  might  almost  have  been  written  by  John 
Webster  or  John  Ford,  and  in  this  respect  it  differs 
greatly  from  the  modern  Elizabethanism  of  Sheridan 
Knowles  and  others.  Its  author  was  the  eldest  son  of  Dr. 
Thomas  Beddoes  of  Clifton,  the  early  friend  of  Humphry 
Davy,  and  his  mother  was  a  sister  of  Maria  Edgeworth. 
T.  L.  Beddoes  was  born  in  1803,  educated  at  the  Bath 
Grammar  school,  the  Charterhouse  and  Pembroke  College, 
Oxford,  and  showed  when  a  student  intense  interest 
in  the  poetic  drama.  Having  graduated  at  Oxford,  he 
studied  physic  for  four  years  at  Gottingen.  He  lived 
chiefly  abroad,  most  in  Germany  and  Switzerland,  and 
died  in  January  1849. 

In  the  first  years  of  the  reign  of  Victoria  the  stage  had 
in  Mr.  James  Robinson  Planche  a  delightful  writer  of 
brilliant  extravaganzas,  fairy  pieces  with  grace  of  inven- 
tion and  treatment,  and  with  ingenuity  and  beauty  in  the 
manner  of  presentment.  Mr.  Planche'  is  descended  from 
one  of  the  French  protestant  families  that  came  to  Eng- 
land after  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  He 
was  born  in  1796,  and  wrote  the  first  of  his  extravaganzas 
at  the  age  of  twenty-two.  It  was  produced  at  Drury 
Lane  Theatre  in  the  year  1818.  Mr.  Planche*  distin- 
guished himself  also  as  a  student  of  ancient  life  and  man- 
ners, whose  antiquarian  knowledge,  joined  to  his  good 
taste,  made  him  a  valuable  counsellor  upon  all  points  of 
dramatic  costume.  He  was  created  Rouge  Croix  Pur- 
suivant of  Arms  in  1854,  and  Somerset  Herald  in  1866. 


IN   TUE  EEIGN  OF   VICTORIA.  305 

He  has  written  nearly  two  hundred  pieces,  edited  Fairy 
Tales,  written  upon  antiquities,  and  produced  a  valuable 
"  Dictionary  of  British  Costume,"  published  in  1880. 

Adelaide  Kemble,  younger  daughter  of  Charles  Kemble, 
who  achieved  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  reign  of  Victoria 
high  reputation  as  a  singer,  left  the  stage  in  1843,  upon 
her  marriage  to  Mr.  Sartoris.  In  1847  she  contributed  to 
the  Literature  of  the  reign  a  pleasant  volume  called  "  A 
Week  in  a  French  Country  House." 

John  Anthony  Heraud,  born  in  1799,  was  in  his  earlier 
years  a  busy  man  of  letters  and  published  in  1830  and 
1834  two  epic  poems,  "the  Descent  into  Hell"  and  "the 
Judgment  of  the  Flood."  He  has  since  written  several 
tragedies  in  blank  verse  of  which  one,  "Videna,"  was 
acted  in  1854. 

Richard  Hengist  Home,  born  in  1807,  began  life  as  a 
sailor,  saw  service  in  war  between  Mexico  and  Spain, 
visited  Indian  tribes  of  North  America  and  had  many 
adventures  before  he  settled  in  London  as  a  writer.  His 
work  has  often  indicated  high  poetic  power.  Poets  have 
felt  the  force  and  beauty  of  his  "  Death  of  Marlowe " 
published  in  1838,  and  his  "  Orion "  deserves  a  place  in 
Literature  upon  higher  ground  than  that  it  is  an  epic  poem 
which  was  published  in  1843  at  the  price  of  a  farthing, 
to  express  its  author's  sense  of  the  public  estimation  of 
such  Literature. 

Charles  Swain,  who  was  born  in  1803,  and  died  in  1874, 
began  life  in  dyeworks  at  Manchester,  but  joined  after- 
wards a  firm  of  engravers.  He  had  skill  as  a  lyric  poet, 
and  many  of  his  songs,  written  to  aid  the  progress  of 
society,  were  current  among  the  people.  "  There's  a  good 
time  coming,  bo}*s,"  was  once  a  refrain  of  his   common 


306  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

throughout  England.  It  was  a  good  time  coming  for 
which  they  were  to  "  wait  a  little  longer ; "  and  we  battle 
for  it  yet. 

Thomas  Cooper,  known  as  "  the  Chartist,"  was  born  in 
1805,  at  Leicester.  He  taught  himself  Hebrew,  Greek, 
Latin,  and  French,  while  working  at  a  shoemaker's  stall ; 
then  he  became  schoolmaster.  He  was  a  Chartist  leader 
at  Leicester  in  1841,  and  in  1842  was  sentenced  to  two 
years'  imprisonment  on  a  charge  of  sedition.  In  gaol  he 
wrote  his  poem  "  The  Purgatory  of  Suicides,"  published 
in  1845,  and  afterwards  he  wrote  both  prose  and  verse ; 
novels,  political  articles  and  poems  bearing  on  the  condi- 
tion of  the  people.  He  lectured  also  in  many  places, 
preached,  and  battled  against  the  loss  of  religious  faith 
that  spread  among  working  men.  Thomas  Cooper's  "  Au- 
tobiography," published  in  1872,  gives,  from  a  point  of 
view  most  interesting  to  the  student  of  our  time,  a  picture 
of  no  small  part  of  the  onward  battle  in  which  true 
Englishmen  of  every  rank  and  every  form  of  opinion  now 
are  combatant. 

George  Borrow,  of  Cornish  family,  was  born  at  East 
Dereham  in  1803.  He  began  active  life  articled  to  a  soli- 
citor at  Norwich,  and  there  he  became  interested  in  the 
language  and  manner  of  the  gipsies  who  camped  on  a 
neighbouring  heath.  He  gave  up  Law  for  Literature, 
and  after  1833  travelled,  for  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society,  in  Russia  and  Spain.  In  1841  he  published  an 
account  of  the  gipsies  in  Spain,  "the  Zincali;"  and  in 
1842  "  the  Bible  in  Spain."  The  author's  spirit  of  adven- 
ture, with  earnestness  of  character  and  genuine  enthusiasm 
for  studies  of  gipsy  life  and  language,  that  had  its  source 
partly  in  sense  of  the  picturesque,  made  these  books  very 


IN  TIIE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  307 

delightful.  Mr.  Borrow  has  since  travelled  among  gipsies 
of  Eastern  Europe,  and  has  published  other  books ;  "  La- 
vengro,"  in  1851;  "the  Romany  Rye,"  in  1857;  also  "Ro- 
mano Lavo-Lil,  a  word-book  of  the  Romany,  or  English 
Gipsy  Language,"  in  1874. 

The  students  of  our  past  History  and  Literature  who 
were  between  thirty  and  forty  at  the  beginning  of  the 
reign,  were  Alexander  Dyce,  Sir  Frederick  Madden,  the 
Earl  of  Stanhope,  Mr.  William  John  Thorns  and  Mr. 
Charles  Roach  Smith.  Mr.  Dyce,  born  at  Edinburgh, 
in  1798,  was  the  son  of  a  general  officer  in  the  East  India 
Company's  service.  He  was  educated  in  the  Edinburgh 
High-School  and  at  Exeter  College,  Oxford.  He  was 
ordained,  held  curacies  in  Cornwall  and  Suffolk,  and  in 
1827  settled  in  London,  where  his  knowledge  of  Italian 
as  well  as  of  English  Literature,  and  his  true  sense  of 
poetry,  obtained  for  him  the  first  place  among  students  of 
the  Elizabethan  Drama.  He  qualified  himself  for  his  place 
as  the  best  editor  of  Shakespeare's  text  by  editing  the 
works  of  George  Peele  in  1829,  of  John  Webster  in  1830, 
of  Robert  Greene  in  1831,  of  Thomas  Middleton  in  1840, 
of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  in  1843-46.  The  first  edi- 
tion of  Dyce's  Shakespeare  appeared  in  1857.  In  1864 
the  second  edition  gave  the  results  of  continued  study  in 
fuller  revision  of  the  text.  Ripe  judgment  and  thorough 
familiarity  with  all  forms  of  Elizabethan  thought  enabled 
the  editor  to  be  a  little  bolder  in  correction  of  those  errors 
in  the  old  printed  texts  which  he  had,  at  first,  not  ventured 
to  touch.  Dyce  died  in  February  1864,  leaving  much 
material  ready  for  the  next  revision  of  his  work,  and  the 
publication  of  a  third  edition  of  his  Shakespeare  in  1874, 
including  all  his  latest  notes,  was  due  to  the  generous  care 


308  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  his  friend  John  Forster.  We  have  in  Dyce's  edition 
that  which  is  now  generally  accepted  as  —  thus  far  —  the 
best  attainable  text  of  the  Shakespeare's  Plays. 

Sir  Frederick  Madden,  born  in  1801  and  knighted  in 
1833,  became  keeper  of  the  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum 
in  the  year  of  Her  Majesty's  accession.  Of  many  pieces 
of  old  English  Literature  first  edited  by  him  from  their 
MSS.  the  most  important  was  that  of  Layamon's  "  Brut," 
in  1847 ;  he  was  the  first  editor  also  of  other  works  of  high 
interest,  the  Romances  of  Havelok,  the  Dane,  in  1828 ; 
William  and  the  Werwolf,  in  1832 ;  and  Sir  Gawayne,  in 
1839.  Sir  Frederick  Madden  died  in  March  1873.  Wil- 
liam John  Thorns,  born  in  1803,  began  active  life  as  a  clerk 
in  the  Secretary's  Office  at  Chelsea  Hospital.  He  pub- 
lished in  1828  a  valuable  collection  of  the  "  Early  English 
Prose  Romances ; "  of  Robert  the  Devil,  Friar  Bacon, 
Vergil  the  Enchanter,  Doctor  Faustus,  and  others.  Of  this 
work  there  was  an  enlarged  second  edition  in  1858.  One 
of  the  best  of  many  services  for  which  students  of  English 
Life  and  Literature  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Thorns  was  his 
foundation  in  1850  of  "Notes  and  Queries,"  a  medium 
of  intercommunication  through  which  literary  men  can 
have  full  aid  of  fellowship  in  their  research.  He  was  him- 
self editor  of  his  journal  until  1873,  and  it  still  lives  and 
thrives,  being  not  only  an  important  aid  to  research,  but, 
by  its  nature,  also  an  amusing  miscellany  of  curious  infor- 
mation for  those  who  seek  in  it  intellectual  entertainment. 
Mr.  Thorns  has  distinguished  himself  by  pleasant  attacks 
upon  faith  in  the  duration  of  life  to  a  hundred  years  or 
more.  The  only  malice  of  the  world  towards  him  lies  in 
its  hope  that  he  may  live  to  see  the  happy  completion  of  his 
own  hundredth  year  on  the  16th  of  November  1903. 


iy   THE  REIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  309 

Charles  Roach  Smith,  who  was  born  in  1804,  at  Land- 
guard  Manor  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  has  distinguished 
himself  as  an  explorer  and  interpreter  of  local  antiquities. 
He  published  from  1848  to  1866  six  volumes  of  "  Collecta- 
nea Antiqua ; "  from  1850  to  1858  books  on  the  Antiqui- 
ties of  Richborough,  Reculver  and  Lymne,  and  in  1859 
"Illustrations  of  Roman  London."  He  has  been  lately 
interested  in  the  discovery  of  a  Roman  Villa  at  Brading 
in  his  native  island.  Mention  should  here  also  be  made 
of  the  antiquarian  writings  of  the  Rev.  John  Collingwood 
Bruce,  born  at  Newcastle  in  1805,  whose  work  on  "  the 
Roman  Wall ;  a  Description  of  the  Mural  Barrier  of  the 
North  of  England,"  first  published  in  1851,  reached  a  third 
edition  in  1867.  In  a  large  volume,  amply  illustrated,  it 
supplies  the  most  exhaustive  treatment  of  its  subject. 

The  historians  of  this  decade  of  years,  were  Macaulay, 
Lord  Mahon  afterwards  Earl  Stanhope,  Sir  George  Corne- 
wall  Lewis,  Eyre  Evans  Crowe,  and  Thomas  Henry  Dyer ; 
to  whom  may  be  added  Abraham  Hay  ward  and  John  Doran 
as  writers  of  lively  gossiping  essays  upon  the  past. 

Philip  Henry  Stanhope,  Earl  Stanhope,  first  known  as 
historian  under  his  earlier  title  of  Lord  Mahon,  was  born 
in  1805  and  educated  at  Christ  Church,  Oxford.  He  en- 
tered the  House  of  Commons  in  1830,  was  Under-secre- 
tary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs  in  1832,  and  for  a  year, 
in  1845-6,  he  was  secretary  to  the  Board  of  Control. 
He  published  in  1829  a  "  Life  of  Belisarius,"  in  1832  a 
"  History  of  the  War  of  Succession  in  Spain ; "  in  1836- 
38  his  chief  work,  "  History  of  England  from  the  Peace 
of  Utrecht,"  followed  in  1872  by  a  "  History  of  the  Reign 
of  Queen  Anne,"  which  was  designed  to  form  a  link  be- 
tween Lord  Macaulay 's  History  and  his  own.    "  Historical 


310  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Essays"  in  1848,  and  "Miscellanies"  in  1863  contained 
Earl  Stanhope's  contributions  to  Reviews.  He  published 
also  in  1845  "the  Life  of  the  Great  CondeV'  in  1853  "the 
Life  of  Joan  of  Arc,"  in  1861-62  "  the  Life  of  William 
Pitt,"  and  took  part  with  Edward  Cardwell  in  the  "  Mem- 
oirs of  Sir  Robert  Peel,"  published  in  1856.  In  1846  he 
had  edited  the  letters  of  Lord  Chesterfield,  and  in  that 
year  he  was  elected  to  the  Presidency  of  the  Society  of 
Antiquaries.     Earl  Stanhope  died  in  December  1875. 

Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis,  born  in  1806,  was  the  son 
of  Sir  Thomas  Frankland  Lewis,  a  baronet  of  an  old  Rad- 
norshire family.  He  was  educated  at  Eton  and  Oxford, 
and  first  entered  the  service  of  the  country  as  one  of  a 
Commission  appointed  in  1831  to  consider  the  state  of  the 
Irish  Church  and  of  the  Irish  People.  From  1839  to  1847 
he  was  Chief  Commissioner  of  Poor  Laws.  In  1847  he 
entered  Parliament  and  became  Secretary  to  the  Board  of 
Control.  In  1848  he  was  Under  Secretary  of  the  Home 
Department,  and  in  1850  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  In 
1854-55  he  edited  "  the  Edinburgh  Review."  After  1855 
Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis  served  in  the  highest  offices 
of  the  State,  first  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  then  as 
Home  Secretary,  in  1858-9.  He  was  Secretary  of  State 
for  the  War  Department,  when  he  died  in  April  1863. 
He  was  a  keen  critic  of  historical  traditions,  and  applied 
a  clear  calm  mind  with  scientific  accuracy  to  questions  of 
the  past  and  present.  In  1832  he  published  "Remarks 
on  the  Use  and  Abuse  of  Political  Terms,"  in  1840  "an 
Essay  on  the  Romance  Language,"  and  "a  Glossary  of 
Herefordshire  Provincial  Words ; "  in  1841  "  an  Essay 
on  the  Government  of  Dependencies,"  in  1849  "  On  the 
Influence  of  Authority  in  Matters  of  Opinion,"  in  1852 


IN   THE  EEIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  311 

two  volumes  on  "  Methods  of  Observation  and  Reasoning 
in  Politics,7'  in  1855  two  volumes  of  "Inquiry  into  the 
Credibility  of  the  Early  Roman  History,"  remorselessly 
demolishing  its  legends;  in  1862  "an  Historical  Survey 
of  the  Astronomy  of  the  Ancients."  His  "  Essays  on  the 
Administrations  of  Great  Britain  from  1783  to  1830  "  were 
published  after  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis's  death  by  Sir  Edmund 
Head,  in  1864;  and  they  were  followed  in  1870  by  his 
"  Letters  to  Various  Friends  "  edited  by  his  brother,  the 
Rev.  Sir  G.  F.  Lewis. 

Eyre  Evans  Crowe,  born  in  1799,  was  an  active  politi- 
cal journalist,  who  at  one  time  edited  "  the  Daily  News." 
In  1830  he  contributed  "  a  History  of  France  "  to  Lard- 
ner's  Cyclopsedia.  During  many  of  the  last  years  of  his 
life,  which  closed  in  1868,  he  lived  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Paris,  for  access  to  French  records  while  he  was  devel- 
oping his  "  History  of  France  "  into  a  fuller  work,  founded 
on  careful  study  of  authorities.  It  was  published  in  five 
octavo  volumes  between  1858  and  1868,  and,  unambitious 
in  style,  it  is  the  most  liberal,  careful  and  trustworthy 
"  History  of  France  "  that  has  been  written  by  an  Eng- 
lishman. 

Thomas  Henry  Dyer,  born  in  1804,  published  in  1861 
"  a  History  of  Modern  Europe ; "  in  1865  "  a  History  of 
the  City  of  Rome  ;  "  and  in  1873  "  Ancient  Athens  ;  " 
besides  other  useful  historical  works.  Abraham  Hayward, 
born  in  1803,  was  trained  to  the  law  and  became  in  1845 
a  Queen's  Counsel.  He  has  produced  a  prose  translation 
of  Goethe's  "  Faust "  that  has  been  widely  read,  has  writ- 
ten upon  Law,  and  founded  "  the  Law  Magazine,"  and  has 
published  three  series  of  "  Biographical  and  Critical  Es- 
says," being  distinguished  among  Quarterly  Reviewers  for 


312  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

light  and  lively  articles  abounding  in  literary  anecdote. 
Mr.  Hay  ward  published  also  in  1861  "  the  Autobiography, 
Letters  and  Remains  of  Mrs.  Piozzi,"  and  in  1864  "Diaries 
of  a  Lady  of  Quality."  John  Doran,  born  in  1807  of  an  old 
family  from  Drogheda,  received  part  of  his  education  in 
France  and  Germany,  was  Ph.D.  of  a  German  University, 
and  commonly  known  as  Dr.  Doran.  He  was  an  active 
man  of  letters,  journalist  and  author,  and  was  pleasantly 
esteemed  for  books  on  various  forms  of  the  social  life  of 
the  past.  They  had  usually  whimsical  titles  and  were 
crowded  with  much  anecdote.  His  first  books  were  his 
best,  upon  Dining  and  Tailoring,  "Table  Traits  and 
Something  on  them,"  and  in  1854  "Habits  and  Men." 
Then  followed  "Lives  of  the  Queens  of  the  House  of 
Hanover  "  in  1855  ;  "  Knights  and  their  Days,"  in  1856  ; 
"  Monarchs  retired  from  Business  "  in  1857  ;  "  a  History 
of  Court  Fools"  (the  best  part  of  its  contents  being 
borrowed  without  proper  acknowledgment  from  Flogel's 
"Geschichte  der  Hofnarren ")  in  1858;  "Lives  of  the 
Princes  of  Wales "  in  1860 ;  "  a  Memoir  of  Queen  Ade- 
laide "  in  1861 ;  "  Her  Majesties'  Servants,"  talk  of  the 
past  days  of  the  English  Stage,  in  1864;  "Saints  and 
Sinners  "  in  1868 ;  "  A  Lady  of  the  Last  Century  "  (Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Montague),  with  a  Chapter  on  "Blue  Stock- 
ings "  in  1873.     Dr.  Doran  died  in  1878. 

Science  was  represented  among  men  of  this  group  by 
Sir  George  Biddell  Airy,  Richard  Owen  and  the  mathe- 
matician, Augustus  De  Morgan.  George  Biddell  Airy, 
born  in  Northumberland  in  1801,  was  Senior  Wrangler 
at  Cambridge  in  1823  and  obtained  a  Fellowship  at  Trin- 
ity in  1824.  In  1826  he  was  appointed  Lucasian  Professor 
of  Mathematics  and  in  1828  Plumian  Professor  of  Astron- 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  313 

omy,  with  charge  of  the  Cambridge  Observatory.  In 
1835  he  became  Astronomer  Royal.  That  office  he  held 
throughout  the  reign  of  Victoria  until  his  resignation  in 
1881,  and  retirement  upon  a  substantial  and  well  earned 
pension.  His  researches  have  been  honoured  by  medals 
from  the  French  Institute,  the  English  Royal  Society  and 
Astronomical  Society.  He  was  among  the  contributors 
to  Charles  Knight's  Penny  Cyclopaedia,  and  he  has  writ- 
ten treatises  for  the  Encyclopaedia  Metropolitana,  besides 
the  records  of  research  contributed  to  the  Cambridge 
Transactions,  the  Philosophical  Transactions  and  the  Me- 
moirs of  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society. 

Augustus  De  Morgan,  born  in  Southern  India  in  1806, 
was  fourth  wrangler  at  Cambridge  in  1827.  In  1828  he 
became  the  first  Professor  of  Mathematics  in  University 
College,  then  opened  as  the  University  of  London.  He 
was  not  only  the  most  successful  teacher,  but  the  most 
learned  authority  of  his  time  upon  the  history  of  Mathe- 
matics, and  in  the  practice  of  his  science  a  most  acute 
pleader  for  the  union  of  Mathematics  with  Logic.  He 
wrote  books  upon  every  department  of  Mathematics,  and 
was  conspicuous  for  union  of  shrewd  critical  wit  with 
good  sense  and  a  wide  erudition.  This  was  shewn  in  the 
"  Budget  of  Paradoxes,"  contributed  from  time  to  time  to 
"  the  Athenaeum."  He  died  in  March  1871  and  his  "  Para- 
doxes "  were  reprinted  as  a  volume  in  1872.  Of  De 
Morgan's  ready  liveliness  in  talk  let  this  serve  as  example. 
Dr.  Sharpey,  the  veteran  physiologist,  was  talking  in  the 
College  Common  Room  of  old  days  before  the  Anatomy 
Act,  when  body  snatchers  provided  subjects  for  Anatomists 
and  Surgeons.  He  had  as  a  young  man  to  receive  the 
supply  for  his  teacher.     A  rival  teacher  turned  informer. 


314  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

—  At  once  De  Morgan  broke  in  with  a  new  version  of  an 

old  song, 

"  If  a  body  need  a  body 
Surgery  to  teach, 
If  a  body  prig  a  body, 
Need  a  body  peach  ?  " 

Richard  Owen,  born  at  Lancaster  in  1804,  was  educated 
at  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and  at  schools  of  medicine 
in  Paris.  He  began  life  with  the  practice  of  medicine, 
but  appointment  to  the  post  of  Assistant  Curator  of  the 
Hunterian  Museum  developed  his  inclination  for  the  study 
of  Comparative  Anatomy.  After  teaching  at  St.  Barthol- 
omew's medical  school,  he  became  in  1836  Professor  of 
Anatomy  and  Physiology  in  the  College  of  Surgeons. 
This  office  he  held  for  twenty  years,  and  then  he  was 
made  Superintendent  of  the  Natural  History  Departments 
in  the  British  Museum.  Professor  Owen's  Lectures  on 
Comparative  Anatomy  were  first  published  in  1843 ;  his 
"  History  of  British  Fossil  Mammals  and  Birds  "  in  1846. 
In  1849  he  published  a  work  on  "the  Nature  of  Limbs," 
dwelling  upon  the  unity  of  design  throughout  creation, 
and  in  1855  a  Lecture  "  On  the  Classification  and  Geo- 
graphical Distribution  of  the  Mammalia,  with  an  Appendix 
on  the  Gorilla,  and  the  Extinction  and  Transmutation  of 
Species."  This  discussion  prepared  the  way  for  Charles 
Darwin's  reasonings,  in  1859,  upon  "  the  Origin  of  Species 
by  means  of  Natural  Selection."  In  1860  Professor  Owen 
published  his  "  Palaeontology,  or  a  systematic  summary  of 
Extinct  Animals,  and  their  Geological  Relations."  Among 
other  works  that  followed  was  one,  in  1866,  on  "  the  Anat- 
omy of  the  Vertebrates."  Another,  in  1877,  was  on  "  The 
Fossil  Mammals  of  Australia,  and  on  the  extinct  Marsu- 
pials of  England." 


IN   TUE  REIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  315 

There  is  to  be  included  among  writers  born  within  this 
decade  of  years,  Walter  White,  Assistant  Secretary  to  the 
Royal  Society,  who  has  published  many  pleasant  books 
describing  holiday  walks.  In  1855  it  was  "  a  Londoner's 
Walk  to  the  Land's  End ; "  in  1858  "  a  Month  in  York- 
shire ;  "  in  1859  "  Northumberland  and  the  Border  ;  "  in 
1860  "  All  Round  the  Wrekin,"  and  so  forth ;  encouraging 
wise  Englishmen  to  know  their  homes  while  not  avoiding 
knowledge  also  of  their  neighbours  ;  other  of  Mr.  White's 
books  being  records  of  holidays  in  Switzerland,  the  Tyrol, 
Saxony,  Bohemia  and  Silesia. 

Richard  Chenevix  Trench,  born  in  1807,  and  now  Arch- 
bishop of  Dublin,  held  a  living  in  Hampshire  when  he 
became  known  by  a  volume  of  good  verse,  "  Justin  Martyr, 
and  other  Poems."  His  religious  writings  have  since  been 
marked  by  refinement  of  taste,  and  some  short  courses  of 
lectures  upon  the  use  of  English,  addressed  to  boys,  have 
been  given  with  great  advantage  to  the  public.  "  The 
Study  of  Words,"  published  in  1852,  «  English  Past  and 
Present,"  in  1855,  "  Select  Glossary  of  English  Words 
used  formerly  in  Senses  different  from  their  Present,"  in 
1859,  are  suggestive  little  books  that  have  passed  through 
many  editions,  and  are  still  freely  used.  Dr.  Trench  was 
Dr.  Buckland's  successor  as  Dean  of  Westminster  from 
1856  to  the  end  of  1863,  when  he  succeeded  Dr.  Whately 
in  the  Archbishopric  of  Dublin. 

John  Stuart  Mill  was  thirty-one  years  old  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  reign.  He  was  born  in  London  in  1806,  eldest 
son  of  James  Mill,  and  instructed  by  his  father,  who,  says 
the  son,  "  in  all  his  teaching  demanded  of  me  not  only  the 
utmost  I  could  do,  but  much  that  I  could  by  no  possibility 
have  done."     John  Stuart  Mill  began  Greek  at  the  age 


316  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  three.  Children's  books  he  seldom  saw,  but  he  read 
through  the  historical  part  of  the  first  thirty  volumes  of 
"  the  Annual  Register."  The  boy  had  a  sensitive  mind, 
and  fresh  shoots  of  imagination  that  dried  up  for  want 
of  culture.  He  was  told  to  read  the  historical  plays  of 
Shakespeare,  for  their  facts,  and  he  went  on  to  others  for 
their  poetry  ;  but  he  was  put  upon  a  severe  course  of  Logic 
at  the  age  of  twelve.  It  began  with  Aristotle's  Organon, 
with  which  were  to  be  taken  the  whole  or  parts  of  several 
of  the  Latin  treatises  on  the  Scholastic  Logic.  Upon 
them  followed  the  "  Computatio,  sive  Logica  "  of  Hobbes, 
and  he  studied  much  in  his  father's  "  History  of  India," 
which  was  first  published  in  1818,  when  the  boy  was 
twelve  years  old.  Towards  religion  James  Mill's  attitude 
was  what  he  considered  logical,  and  he  taught  his  son  to 
look  upon  the  modern  as  on  the  ancient  religion  as  some- 
thing that  in  nO  way  concerned  him.  "  This  point  in  my 
early  education,"  wrote  J.  S.  Mill,  "had,  however,  inci- 
dentally one  bad  consequence  deserving  notice.  In  giving 
me  an  opinion  contrary  to  that  of  the  world,  my  father 
thought  it  necessary  to  give  it  as  one  which  could  not 
prudently  be  avowed  to  the  world."  For  passionate  emo- 
tions of  all  sorts,  James  Mill  professed  the  greatest  con- 
tempt. "He  resembled,"  says  his  son,  "most  Englishmen 
in  being  ashamed  of  the  signs  of  feeling,  and  by  the  absence 
of  demonstration,  starving  the  feelings  themselves."  After 
such  education,  John  Stuart  Mill  followed  his  father's 
steps  in  the  East  India  House,  and  rose,  after  33  years 
service,  from  a  clerkship  to  the  post  his  father  had  held  as 
chief.  This  was  in  1856.  He  had  married  in  1851,  and 
suffered  deeply  upon  his  wife's  death  in  1858.  "  Her 
memory,"  he  wrote  in  his  "  Autobiography  "  (published 


IX   THE  IlEIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  317 

after  his  own  death  in  1873)  "  is  to  me  a  religion,  and  her 
approbation  the  standard  by  which,  summing  up  as  it  does 
all  worthiness,  I  endeavour  to  regulate  my  life."  The 
control  of  the  East  India  Company  over  India  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  British  Government  in  1858.  John  Stuart 
Mill  was  offered  a  seat  in  the  new  Council,  but  he  pre- 
ferred to  retire  upon  the  compensation  granted  him  and 
give  the  rest  of  his  life  to  his  studies.  He  died  in  May 
1873.  The  impulses  of  a  fine  nature,  that  his  father's 
heavy  and  one-sided  training  weakened  indeed  but  could 
not  kill,  give  frequent  charm  to  the  disquisitions  of  John 
Stuart  Mill.  First  came,  from  the  mind  thus  trained,  a 
"  System  of  Logic  "  in  1843  ;  then  "  Principles  of  Political 
Economy,"  early  in  1848,  a  second  edition  being  called 
for  within  the  year.  In  1859-67  followed  three  volumes 
of  "  Dissertations  and  Discussions  "  chiefly  from  the  "  Edin- 
burgh "  and  "  Westminster  "  Reviews.  "  Considerations 
on  Representative  Government,"  1861 ;  "  Utilitarianism," 
1863;  "  Auguste  Comte  and  Positivism,"  1865  ;  in  the  same 
year  "Examination  of  Sir  William  Hamilton's  Philosophy," 
and  in  1869  "  the  Subjection  of  Women,"  a  plea  for  the 
full  political  and  social  rights  of  women,  are  the  most 
important  of  J.  S.  Mill's  other  books.  In  the  "  Autobiogra- 
phy," published  after  his  death,  Mill  indicates  through  all 
his  tenderness,  sincerity  and  truth,  and  his  strong  interest 
in  questions  that  touched  the  well-being  of  man,  a  poetic 
temperament  that  had  been  starved  in  the  training.  There 
is  almost  pathos  in  his  account  of  the  great  comfort  he 
found  in  the  poetry  of  Wordsworth,  with  the  supposition 
that  he  owed  it,  not  to  sympathy  with  the  high  thought 
and  purpose  of  the  poet,  but  to  the  fact  that  he  was  not 
himself  poetical,    "  Wordsworth,"  he  said,  "  may  be  called, 


318  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

the  poet  of  unpoetical  natures,  possessed  of  quiet  and  con- 
templative tastes.  But  unpoetical  natures  are  precisely 
those  which  require  poetic  cultivation."  His  father,  in 
fact,  had  not  succeeded  in  stamping  all  poetry  out  of  him. 
Carlyle  expected  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  when  he  was  a 
young  man,  that  he  would  prove  a  mystic. 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  319 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  BEST   VIGOUR   OF    OUR   TIME;    AND   WHAT   REMAINS 

OP  IT. 

Next  comes  the  ninth  wave,  "gathering  half  the  deep, 
and  full  of  voices,"  that  is  breaking  now  upon  our  shore 
of  time,  while  the  new  waves  that  roll  up  behind  it  must 
grow  yet  before  we  know  their  force.  The  best  vigour  of 
our  time  is  in  writers  who  were  between  twenty  and  tliirty 
years  old  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign.  To  their  group 
belong  Tenn}^son  and  Browning;  Mrs.  Browning;  Dick- 
ens and  Thackeray ;  the  Misses  Bronte ;  Mrs.  Gaskell ; 
Gladstone  ;  Darwin ;  and  others  who  represent  activity  in 
many  forms. 

Charles  Dickens  was  born  on  the  7th  of  February  1812, 
at  Landport  in  Portsea,  son  of  John  Dickens,  a  clerk  in 
the  Navy  Pay  Office,  who  was  then  stationed  at  Ports- 
mouth Dockyard.  He  was  the  second  of  eight  children, 
of  whom  two  died  in  infancy.  In  1814  his  father's  duties 
were  transferred  to  London,  and  in  1816  to  the  dockyard 
at  Chatham,  where  the  family  lived  in  St.  Mary's  Place 
next  door  to  a  Baptist  Chapel.  Coming  once  from  Chat- 
ham with  his  father  he  passed  Gad's  Hill  Place,  admired 
it,  and  was  told  that  he  might  live  in  it  if  he  came  to  be 
a  man  and  should  work  hard  enough.  It  was  a  pleasure 
to  him,  in  after  years,  to  bring  this  prediction  to  fulfilment. 
At   Chatham,  Charles   Dickens  went   to  a  day-school  in 


o 


20  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


Rome  Lane.  His  father  had  a  cheap  series  of  the  works 
of  novelists  and  essayists  —  Fielding,  Smollett,  "  the  Vicar 
of  Wakefield,"  "Don  Quixote,"  "Gil  Bias,"  "Robinson 
Crusoe;"  the  "Spectator,"  "Tatler,"  "Idler,"  "Citizen 
of  the  World,"  and  Mrs.  Inchbald's  collection  of  Farces. 
These  furnished  pasture  ground,  and  Charles  Dickens 
took,  as  a  boy,  to  writing,  produced  a  tragedy  "  Misnar, 
Sultan  of  India  "  founded  upon  one  of  the  "  Tales  of  the 
Genii."  A  cousin,  James  Lamert,  son  of  a  Commander 
in  the  Navy,  with  his  widowed  stepmother,  sister  to  Mrs. 
John  Dickens,  was  part  of  the  household  at  Portsea  and 
Chatham.  At  Chatham  Mrs.  Lamert  married  a  staff  doc- 
tor in  the  army.  He  is  sketched  in  Pickwick.  James 
Lamert,  who  was  being  educated  at  Sandhurst,  had  a  taste 
for  the  stage,  got  up  private  theatricals,  and  took  his  young 
cousin  to  the  theatre.  In  1820-21,  during  the  last  two 
years  at  Chatham,  Dickens  was  at  a  school  in  Clover  Lane, 
kept  by  the  Rev.  W.  Giles,  of  the  Baptist  Chapel  next 
door.  In  1821,  the  family  came  to  London  and  lived  in 
Bayham  Street,  Camden  Town.  James  Lamert  had  fin- 
ished his  education  at  Sandhurst,  and  was  waiting  for  a 
commission.  Dickens,  having  been  brought  to  London, 
found  friends  in  a  godfather  who  was  a  well-to-do  rigger, 
mast,  oar  and  block  maker  in  Limehouse,  and  in  an  elder 
brother  of  his  mother's,  James  Barrow,  who  was  laid  up 
with  a  broken  leg  at  lodgings  in  Gerrard  Street,  Soho, 
over  a  bookseller's  shop  kept  by  a  widow,  from  whom 
books  were  borrowed. 

In  1822  John  Dickens,  who  had  retired  on  a  small  pen- 
sion, was  in  difficulties.  Mrs.  John  Dickens  set  up  a 
school  in  two  parlours  of  an  empty  house  at  4  Gower 
Street,  North,  with  some  hope  that  Charles's  godfather, 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  321 

credited  with  an  Indian  connexion,  might  bring  pupils. 
The  education  of  John  Dickens's  own  children  was,  mean- 
while, neglected,  except  that  the  eldest  daughter  was  sent 
to  the  Academy  of  Music.  After  a  few  months  John 
Dickens  was  arrested  for  debt,  and  lodged  in  the  Marshal- 
sea  prison.  Everything  was  sold  and  pawned,  including 
the  books.  James  Lamert  —  still  waiting  for  the  com- 
mission, which  he  resigned,  when  it  came  long  afterwards, 
to  a  younger  brother  —  about  this  time  joined  a  cousin 
George,  who  had  some  money,  in  setting  up  an  opposition 
to  Robert  Warren's  much  advertised  Blacking  shop  at  30, 
Strand.  A  Jonathan  Warren  had  traded  on  the  name 
which  in  those  days  was  to  be  read  on  most  of  the  walls  in 
England,  and  sold  "Warren's  Blacking"  at  "30  (Hunger- 
ford  Stairs)  Strand,"  printing  a  very  minute  "  Hungerford 
Stairs  "  between  big  "  30  "  and  big  "  Strand."  George 
Lamert  bought  Jonathan  Warren's  business,  and  went  into 
it  with  his  brother  James.  Charles  Dickens,  then  ten 
years  old,  was  employed  in  the  business  to  cover  blacking 
pots,  and  received  for  his  services  six  shillings  a  week. 
His  home  was  broken  up  ;  his  mother  had  gone  to  live 
with  his  father  in  the  Marshalsea;  and  the  boy  was  put  to 
lodge  with  an  old  lady  in  Little  College  Street,  recollec- 
tions of  whom  are  in  the  character  of  Mrs.  Pipchin  in 
"Dombey  and  Son."  He  had  to  keep  himself  out  of  his 
wages ;  moved  presently  to  lodgings  near  the  Marshalsea.  in 
Lant  Street,  Borough,  (home  of  Mr.  Bob  Sawyer  in  "  Pick- 
wick,") taking  breakfast  and  supper  in  the  prison.  There 
the  family  was  still  waited  upon  by  a  small  maid  of  all 
work  first  taken  from  Chatham  workhouse,  the  original  of 
"  the  Marchioness  "  in  "  the  Old  Curiosity  Shop."  John 
Dickens  took  the  benefit  of  the  Act  that  cleared  him  as  a 


322  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

bankrupt.  About  the  same  time  the  blacking  business  of 
the  Lamerts  had  been  removed  to  Chandos  Street,  Covent 
Garden,  at  the  Corner  of  Bedford  Street,  and  little  Charles 
Dickens  had  been  put  into  the  window  that  the  public 
might  get  an  impression  of  extensive  business  from  the 
sight  of  his  swift  tying  of  the  blacking  pots.  John  Dick- 
ens then  quarrelled  with  the  Lamerts,  took  his  son  away, 
and  sent  him,  in  1824,  to  school.  He  was  in  1824-26  at 
two  private  schools  before  he  was  put  into  business  as 
office  boy  at  an  attorney's. 

In  1828  John  Dickens  had  become  a  parliamentary 
reporter.  His  son  Charles  then  followed  his  lead,  devoted 
himself  to  a  close  study  of  shorthand  in  the  reading  room 
of  the  British  Museum,  acquired  skill,  and  practised  for 
two  years  as  reporter  for  an  office  in  Doctor's  Commons. 
In  1831,  aged  nineteen,  he  was  reporter  for  "  the  True 
Sun,"  and  it  was  here  that  he  first  formed  his  friendship 
with  a  young  journalist  of  his  own  age,  John  Forster,  who 
remained  his  life-long  friend.  In  1832,  Dickens's  uncle 
Barrow  started  a  "Mirror  of  Parliament"  that  was  to 
excel  Hansard  in  reporting  the  debates.  Charles  Dickens 
reported  for  it,  during  two  years,  and  then  the  speculation 
failed.  In  January  1834  Dickens  became  reporter  for 
"  the  Morning  Chronicle  "  under  John  Black,  a  genial  and 
energetic  editor.  He  contributed  street  sketches  also  to 
a  magazine  "  the  Old  Monthly,"  which  could  not  pay  for 
them.  In  August  1834,  in  "the  Old  Monthly,"  he  first 
signed  himself  "  Boz."  That  was  the  domestic  pet  name 
of  his  youngest  brother  Augustus,  who  had  been  named 
after  Moses  in  "  the  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  then  had  his 
Moses  turned  into  Boses,  and  his  Boses  into  Boz.  In 
1835  "  the  Evening  Chronicle  "  was  started  as  an  offshoot 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  323 

from  "  the  Morning  Chronicle,"  and  Mr.  George  Hogarth, 
musical  critic  of  "  the  Morning  Chronicle,"  was  active  in 
its  preparation.  Dickens  was  asked  to  supply  an  original 
sketch  for  the  first  number,  like  his  street  sketches  in  "  the 
Old  Monthly."  He  supplied  it,  and  proposed  a  series, 
with  hope  of  pay  for  it  that  might  be  added  to  his  salary 
as  a  reporter.  This  was  arranged,  and  his  salary  was 
raised  from  five  to  seven  guineas  a  week.  The  sketches  in 
"  the  Evening  Chronicle  "  were  signed  "  Boz,"  and  were 
much  liked.  In  1836,  Dickens's  age  being  22,  the  First 
Series  of  "  Sketches  by  Boz  "  was  published  as  a  volume, 
and  the  copyright  sold  to  a  young  publisher  for  £150. 
At  the  same  time  there  was  a  proposal  by  George  Seymour, 
a  comic  artist,  who  amused  himself  and  others  a  good 
deal  at  the  expense  of  cockney  sportsmen,  to  produce  a 
series  of  comic  plates.  The  publishers  of  the  proposed 
series,  Messrs.  Chapman  and  Hall,  looked  for  an  amusing 
writer  of  pen  sketches  that  might  be  attached  to  them, 
and  they  applied  to  the  lively  author  of  "  Sketches  by 
Boz."  Dickens  suggested  that  the  new  Sketches  written 
by  him  for  Seymour's  pictures  should  have  some  continu- 
ity, however  slight,  and  it  was  agreed  that  this  could  be 
obtained  by  forming  comic  characters  into  a  club.  Thus 
came  into  existence  the  "Posthumous  Papers  of  the  Pick- 
wick Club,"  of  which  No.  1  appeared  on  the  31st  of 
March  1836.  On  the  second  of  the  following  April, 
Dickens  married  the  eldest  daughter  of  his  friend  George 
Hogarth,  drawing  from  "  Pickwick  "  one  month's  pay  in 
advance  for  wedding  expenses.  The  payment  was  to  be 
£15  for  each  number.  Between  the  appearances  of  No.  1 
and  No.  2,  Se}7mour  committed  suicide ;  pictures  were  in- 
dispensable, and  Thackeray,  then  an  art  student,  offered 


324  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

to  supply  them.  The  artist  chosen  was  Hablot  Browne, 
who  signed  himself  "  Phiz."  By  the  time  the  sixth  num- 
ber was  reached,  there  was  much  talking  about  "  Pick- 
wick," in  which  a  new  writer,  a  man  of  genius,  with  high 
spirits  that  cheered  all  readers,  was  revelling  in  wit  and 
whim.  There  was  little  or  no  plan  in  the  book ;  that  had 
not  been  part  of  the  original  design ;  but,  story  or  no 
story,  in  1837,  at  the  beginning  of  Her  Majesty's  reign, 
there  was  "  Pickwick."  It  is  said  that  when  the  delight 
in  "  Pickwick  "  was  at  its  height,  a  ponderous  divine,  who 
had  been  giving  counsel  at  the  bedside  of  a  dying  man 
heard  as  he  left  the  room  his  victim  sigh,  "  Thank  Heaven, 
there  will  be  another  '  Pickwick '  in  three  days ! "  In 
August  1836  Dickens  had  agreed  with  Richard  Bentley, 
the  publisher,  to  edit  a  magazine  for  him,  "  Bentley's  Mis- 
cellany," and  write  a  tale  in  it.  The  tale  was  "  Oliver 
Twist,"  begun  in  February  1837,  and  aided  greatly  by 
George  Cruikshank  as  an  illustrator.  Dickens's  fame  had 
risen  so  rapidly  that  the  young  publisher  who  gave  £150 
for  the  "  Sketches  by  Boz  "  asked  £2,000  for  the  surrender 
of  his  bargain.  Payments  agreed  upon  for  extra  sale 
brought  up  the  price  of  "Pickwick"  to  £2,500;  and  for 
the  next  novel,  published,  like  "  Pickwick,"  in  twenty 
green-covered  monthly  numbers,  the  price  was  £150  a 
number,  with  reversion  of  copyright  to  the  author  in  five 
years. 

In  1840  and  1841  Dickens  attempted  weekly  publica- 
tion of  his  "  Master  Humphrey's  Clock  "  which  contained, 
besides  short  stories,  "the  Old  Curiosity  Shop,"  one  of 
the  best  of  his  novels,  and  "  Barnaby  Rudge."  A  visit  to 
America  yielded  in  1842  "  American  Notes."  In  1843  he 
produced  a  five  shilling  Christmas  story,  daintily  printed 


JJV   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  325 

and  illustrated  with  woodcuts  and  coloured  plates,  "  The 
Christmas  Carol."  This  was  a  new  form  of  pleasure ; 
and  as  the  successful  novels  in  monthly  numbers  set 
many  producing  novels  in  monthly  numbers,  so  the  suc- 
cessful Christmas  book,  set  many  producing  Christmas 
books  of  the  same  outward  pattern.  Dickens  continued 
the  practice  only  through  the  next  four  years,  publishing 
in  1844  "the  Cricket  on  the  Hearth;"  in  1845  "the 
Chimes;"  in  1846  "the  Battle  of  Life;"  and  in  1847 
"  the  Haunted  Man."  His  longer  tales,  always  first  told 
in  twenty  monthly  numbers,  were  "  Martin  Chuzzlewit," 
in  1844,  "  Dombey  and  Son,"  in  1848,  and  "  David  Cor> 
perfield,"  in  1850. 

In  1845  Dickens's  energy  led  to  the  establishment  of  an 
important  newspaper  "  The  Daily  News."  The  prospec- 
tus of  it  was  written  by  him ;  its  first  number,  which 
appeared  on  the  21st  of  January,  1846,  was  edited  by 
him ;  and  he  remained  editor  until  the  9th  of  the  next 
month.  In  aid  of  this  venture  he  had  begun  to  write  im- 
pressions of  Italian  travel,  and  he  continued  to  contribute, 
after  the  editor's  work  had  been  transferred,  for  the  rest 
of  the  year,  to  his  friend  Forster.  The  volume  of  "  Pic- 
tures from  Italy  "  appeared  in  1846. 

In  1850  Dickens  established  "  Household  Words  "  as  a 
weekly  journal  that  was  to  join  reason  with  imagination 
in  support  of  every  effort  towards  the  improvement  of 
society.  There  were  to  be  tales,  sketches,  poems,  always 
designed  in  aid  of  right  citizen-building.  He  would  help 
one  half  of  the  world  really  to  know  how  the  other  half 
lived.  This  was  putting  to  high  use  the  wide  spread 
influence  he  had  acquired.  He  gathered  about  him,  as 
fellow  workers,  all  whom  he  thought  able  and  found  ready 


326  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

to  aid  his  design.  "  Household  Words  "  prospered  until 
1859,  when  its  sale  was  doubled  by  continuing  it  as  a  new 
series  under  a  new  name,  "  All  the  Year  Round."  Since 
Charles  Dickens's  death  this  journal  has  been  successfully 
continued  by  his  son,  whose  name  also  is  Charles  Dickens. 
In  Christmas  numbers  of  his  weekly  journal  containing 
tales  connected  by  some  little  framework  of  his  own  de- 
vising, some  of  the  best  of  Dickens's  own  short  stories 
were  written ;  but  he  ceased  to  produce  Christmas  num- 
bers when  imitation  on  all  hands  took  away  their  fresh- 
ness of  design. 

In  1852  was  published  "the  Child's  History  of  Eng- 
land," written  originally  for  "  Household  Words."  The 
conception  of  the  book  was  an  honest  one  —  to  sweep 
away  historical  conventions  and  reach  unsophisticated 
truth  —  but  the  execution  of  it  required  much  knowledge 
in  which  Dickens  was  deficient.  "  Bleak  House  "  was  the 
next  novel,  in  twenty  numbers.  It  was  completed  in 
1853.  In  1854  "  Hard  Times "  was  republished  from 
"  Household  Words."  Then  "  Little  Dorrit  "  appeared  in 
the  usual  twenty  numbers,  completed  in  1855.  In  1859 
Dickens's  powerful  story  of  the  days  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution, "the  Tale  of  Two  Cities,"  was  published  in  "All 
the  Year  Round."  In  the  same  journal  appeared  also  the 
papers  collected  as  "  the  Uncommercial  Traveller,"  and 
the  novel  of  "Great  Expectations,"  finished  in  1861. 
"  Our  Mutual  Friend  "  returned  to  the  old  twenty  number 
form,  and  was  finished  in  November  1865;  Dickens  had 
added  to  his  labours  the  public  dramatic  reading  of 
selected  portions  of  his  works.  Whatever  he  did  was 
done  with  his  whole  energy.  In  1867  he  revisited  Amer- 
ica, and  after  his  return  planned  "  Edwin  Drood  "  which 


IN  TIIE  IlEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  327 

was  to  be  completed  in  twelve  instead  of  twenty  monthly 
numbers.  Only  six  had  appeared,  and  the  rest  was  un- 
written, when  a  sudden  seizure,  with  effusion  on  the  brain, 
brought  the  great  novelist's  life  to  a  close  on  the  9th  of 
June  1870,  at  the  age  of  fifty-eight.  Thackeray  had 
already  passed  away. 

William  Makepeace  Thackeray  was  born  at  Calcutta  on 
the  18th  of  July  1811,  of  a  family  of  Indian  Civil  Ser- 
vants. His  father  died  in  1816,  and  his  mother  was  mar- 
ried a  few  years  afterwards  to  Major  Henry  Carmichael 
Smith.  Thackeray  was  sent  as  a  child  from  India  for 
education  in  England,  and  placed  at  the  Charterhouse. 
He  was  not  particularly  happy  there,  but  his  gentle 
nature  looked  back  afterwards  on  his  old  school  with 
growing  affection.  In  February  1829  he  went  to  Trinity 
College  Cambridge,  and  left  in  1830.  An  inclination 
towards  studies  of  Art  took  him  abroad.  In  1831  he  was 
at  Weimar.  In  1832  he  was  at  Paris,  when  he  came  of 
age  and  came  into  possession  of  <£500  a  year.  He  still 
studied  among  the  painters,  half  aimlessly,  with  a  genius 
that  must  needs  in  due  time  make  Literature  his  calling, 
but  with  his  future  business  in  life  ill  denned.  In  a  few 
years  he  had  got  rid  of  his  money,  by  cardplaying  and 
newspaper  speculation.  The  loss  was  gain  to  him.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  Reign  of  Victoria,  in  1837,  his  chief 
income  was  from  "Eraser's  Magazine,"  to  which  he  con- 
tributed, in  1837-38,  "the  History  of  Samuel  Titmarsh 
and  the  Great  Hoggarty  Diamond,"  and  he  was  writing 
also  in  the  "New  Monthly."  In  1837  Thackeray  mar- 
ried. 

His  eldest  daughter,  now  Mrs.  Richmond  Ritchie,  has 
inherited  some  part  of  his  genius,  and  is  one  of  the  most 


328  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

delightful   of  our   living   novelists,  gifted   with   delicate 
invention,  charm  of  thought  and  grace  of  style. 

Thackeray  was  in  those  days  much  in  Paris.  In  1840 
he  published  his  "Paris  Sketch  Book,"  and  in  1843  his 
"Irish  Sketch  Book,"  having  in  the  interval  become 
an  active  contributor  to  "  Punch,"  then  just  founded. 
Thackeray's  playful  humour  had  free  range  in  the  pages 
of  "Punch."  There  was  a  dainty  spirit  of  fun  in  his 
satire  and  his  comic  ballads,  with  a  humour  all  his  own. 
In  1844  he  published  another  little  book,  "  a  Journey  from 
Cornhill  to  Grand  Cairo."  In  1846,  emulous  perhaps  of 
the  success  of  Dickens,  and  strong  in  the  growing  sense 
of  power,  Thackeray  followed  Dickens's  plan  of  publishing 
a  long  novel  in  monthly  numbers  and  began  "  Vanity 
Fair."  It  was  finished  in  1848,  in  24  numbers,  and  then 
for  the  first  time  he  made  known  the  full  breadth  of  his 
genius.  Dickens  had  leapt  to  fame  at  the  age  of  24  and 
strengthened  year  by  year  his  hold  upon  the  public. 
Thackeray  slowly  developed  to  the  full  expression  of  his 
power  and  was  37  when  he  took  his  place  with  the  great 
English  novelists  by  right  of  "  Vanity  Fair."  In  1849  he 
had  an  illness  which  left  him  subject  to  those  occasional 
attacks  of  spasm  in  one  of  which  he  at  last  died.  In  1850 
"  Pendennis  "  followed  "  Vanity  Fair,"  still  published  in 
monthly  numbers.  In  1851  Thackeray  delivered  lectures 
at  Willis's  Rooms  on  "  the  English  Humourists  ;  "  and  in 
the  winter  of  1852-53  he  lectured  in  America.  The  profit 
from  lecturing  enabled  Thackeray  to  make  all  requisite 
provision  for  his  family.  In  coming  thus  into  direct 
relation  with  his  readers,  Thackeray  preceded  Dickens, 
who  first  thought  of  public  readings  in  1846,  but,  although 
he  gave  some  gratuitous  readings  in  and  after  December 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  329 

1853,  did  not  begin  the  paid  readings  until  1858.  In 
1853  Thackeray  produced  "  the  Newcomes,"  and  prepared 
a  second  series  of  Lectures  on  "  the  Four  Georges." 
These  proved  not  less  profitable  than  the  lectures  on  the 
"  English  Humourists."  In  1854  Thackeray  published 
"  Esmond,"  one  of  his  best  novels,  illustrating  life  in  the 
days  of  Queen  Anne,  which  was  artistically  coloured 
by  making  persons  of  the  drama  tell  their  story  in  an 
English  imitating  English  of  the  days  of  Addison  and 
Steele.  Steele  appeared  in  the  story,  a  man  little  under- 
stood by  Thackeray,  the  merit  of  whose  accounts  of  the 
English  Humourists  does  not  lie  in  full  knowledge  of 
the  men  he  tells  about.  In  1857-59  appeared  the  "Vir- 
ginians," a  sequel  to  "Esmond."  He  was  forty-eight 
years  old  when  he  completed  the  "  Virginians,"  and  in  the 
same  year  "  the  Cornhill  Magazine "  was  founded  by 
Messrs.  Smith  and  Elder,  with  Thackeray  for  Editor.  It 
was  immediately  preceded  by  "  Macmillan's  Magazine," 
first  published  a  month  earlier  than  "the  Cornhill." 
These  two  magazines  were  designed  to  give  for  a  shilling, 
which  replaced  the  old  conventional  half  crown,  a  monthly 
supply  of  the  best  Literature  attainable.  "  The  Cornhill " 
added  pictures  to  letter  press,  and  secured  illustrations 
from  some  of  the  best  English  artists,  including  John 
Everett  Millais,  Frederick  Walker,  and  the  present  Presi- 
dent of  the  Royal  Academ3r,  Sir  John  Leighton.  Thack- 
eray was  editor  of  the  Magazine  until  April  1862,  and 
continued  to  write  for  it  until  his  sudden  death,  on  the 
24th  of  December  1863.  He  had  published  in  the  Corn- 
hill "the  Roundabout  Papers,"  "Lovel  the  Widower,"  and 
"the  Adventures  of  Philip,"  and  left  behind  him  a  frag- 
ment of  a  novel,  "  Denis  Duval,"  which  appeared  in  "  the 
Cornhill  Magazine  "  at  the  beginning  of  1864. 


330  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

In  their  lifetime  many  vain  comparisons  were  drawn 
between  Dickens  and  Thackeray.  They  were  the  great 
novelists  of  their  day,  and  novel  readers  took  sides  in 
dispute  about  them,  after  the  usual  way,  by  exalting  one 
and  running  down  the  other.  Dickens,  with  little  aid  of 
school  education  in  his  early  years,  and  in  much  contact 
with  the  lower  forms  of  life,  had  the  energy  of  genius 
strengthened,  and  its  sympathy  deepened,  by  a  youth  of 
battle  against  adverse  circumstance.  The  strong  will  con- 
quered, and  the  strong  will  showed  its  force  until  the  end. 
A  vigour  impatient  of  all  check  set  itself  face  to  face 
with  the  ills  of  life,  and  spent  the  gifts  of  a  rare  genius 
in  strenuous  service  to  humanity.  The  work  of  such  a 
writer  must  inevitably  show,  at  times,  some  traces  of  the 
want  of  early  culture.  To  the  fastidious,  Charles  Dick- 
ens would  at  times,  often  perhaps,  seem  vulgar,  and  his 
generous  emotions  would  also,  at  times,  outrun  his  judg- 
ment. But  brilliant  playfulness  of  fancy  in  a  man  of 
genius,  whose  very  defects  of  conventional  training  be- 
longed to  a  childhood  and  youth  brought  into  close  con- 
tact and  victorious  struggle  with  the  meaner  life  that  was 
about  him,  and  who  drew  from  such  education  only  a 
more  vivid  sense  of  social  needs,  and  keener  sympathies 
with  those  who  are  forced  to  fight  the  battle  with  less 
strength  to  overcome,  cannot  be  vulgar.  Extravagance 
in  the  play  of  whimsical  suggestion,  closer  sympathy  with 
the  lives  of  the  ten  million  than  with  the  lives  of  the  ten 
thousand,  cannot  be  vulgar  when  the  extravagance  is 
unrestrained  play  of  an  honest  wit,  in  its  fellowship  with 
mirth  and  sorrow  intensely  human,  and  capable  of  flash- 
ing truth  upon  the  world  in  forms  that  catch  its  fancy 
and  can  touch  its  heart.     The  wildest  extravagance  had 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  331 

some  touch  of  that  individual  character  by  which  humour 
rises  above  wit,  and  of  which  Dickens  was  brimful,  the 
complaint  being,  indeed,  that  it  ran  over  the  brim.  When 
Thackeray,  who  had  been  moved  to  tears  by  No.  5  of 
"  Dombey  and  Son,"  containing  the  death  of  Little  Paul, 
threw  the  number  on  the  table  at  the  "  Punch "  office, 
and  said,  "  Look  there  ;  who  can  stand  against  that  ?  "  he 
knew  the  strength  of  Charles  Dickens's  genius  as  truly  as 
Dickens  knew  and  recognized  the  strength  of  his.  There 
can  be  no  essential  vulgarity  in  a  writer  who  deliberately 
gives  his  labour  to  the  highest  aims  in  life ;  who  seeks,  as 
Shakespeare  did,  by  his  fictions  to  draw  men  to  love  God 
and  their  neighbour  and  to  do  their  work,  and  who,  as 
strenuously  as  he  had  done  his  own  work,  sought  to  put 
heart  into  every  irresolute  toiler  and  encourage  him  to 
battle  on.  It  is  said  that  Dickens  erred  in  writing  "nov- 
els with  a  purpose."  What  does  that  mean  ?  Purposeless 
work  is  not  for  the  sane.  What  is  meant  must  be  that  he 
wrote  novels  with  a  wrong  purpose,  that  he  built  their 
plots  upon  accidental  questions  of  the  day  and  not  upon 
essential  truths  that  are  the  same  to-da}r  and  for  ever.  In 
"  Bleak  House,"  for  example,  he  attacked  the  delays  of 
law,  and  levelled  a  fiction  against  the  Court  of  Chancery. 
If  that  were  all,  the  complaint  would  be  a  just  one ;  but 
that  is  not  all.  Dramatist  or  novelist  must  needs  con- 
struct his  tale  from  some  form  of  the  life  he  finds  about 
him,  although  he  should  base  his  tale  upon  some  simple 
and  essential  truth  of  life.  And  in  "  Bleak  House  "  what 
does  the  Chancery  suit  stand  for?  It  is  the  something 
outside  a  man's  life  that  may  at  any  day  bring  fortune  to 
him,  without  labour  of  his  own.  Such  hope  is  a  blight 
upon  the  life  that  trusts  to  it.     Richard  Carstone's  life  is 


332  OF  ENGLISII  LITERATURE 

robbed  of  its  true  vigour  by  such  dependence  on  the 
chances  of  an  outward  Fortune ;  while  Esther  Summerson 
does  her  daily  duty  with  cheerful  activity,  and  Mr.  Jarn- 
dyce,  at  Bleak  House,  much  as  the  suit  concerns  him, 
puts  its  possibilities  away  from  him.  He  takes  no  thought 
about  the  Hercules  who  might  come  down  to  set  his 
waggon  going,  but  puts,  when  needful,  his  own  shoulder 
to  the  wheel,  and  lives  his  own  life  worthily.  "  Fortune 
reigns  in  the  gifts  of  the  world,  not  in  the  lineaments  of 
nature." 

Thackeray,  on  the  other  hand,  was  accused  of  cynicism. 
He  had  the  early  culture  of  which  Dickens  was  deprived, 
and  special  training  as  an  artist.  This  gave  a  grace  of 
refinement  to  his  style,  which  is  one  part  of  its  charm. 
But  another  part  of  his  charm,  and  a  main  part,  is  that 
with  a  fine  humour  in  which,  as  in  all  true  humour,  the 
whole  nature  of  the  writer  is  involved,  Thackeray  retained 
as  a  man  the  playfulness,  the  simplicity,  the  tender  feeling 
of  a  child.  In  playful  books,  such  as  "  the  Rose  and  the 
Ring,"  published  in  1855,  and  in  his  "  Ballads,"  there  is, 
with  a  man's  fulness  of  power,  a  genuine  playfulness,  a 
childlike  spirit  of  fun  without  one  trick  of  affectation  to 
cast  doubt  on  its  sincerity.  But  this  is  absolutely  incom- 
patible with  what  the  world  calls  cynicism.  Although 
his  view  of  life  was  dimmed  a  little  by  experiences  of  a 
public  school  and  of  the  ways  of  the  young  artist  world  in 
Paris,  and  he  may  therefore  shake  his  head  sometimes 
over  a  mother's  faith  in  the  goodness  of  her  son,  although 
reaction  from  the  weak  excesses  of  French  Revolutionary 
sentiment  had  brought  an  air  of  cynicism  into  fashion, 
Thackeray's  ideal  of  life  is  really  childlike  in  its  purity. 
In  "  Vanity  Fair  "  he  took,  like  Fielding  whom  he  did  not 


IN  TIIE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  333 

study  in  vain,  a  broad  canvas  on  which  to  paint  an  image 
of  the  world.  As  Fielding,  in  Tom  Jones  and  Blifil,  rep- 
resented the  two  opposite  poles  about  which  our  world 
turns,  so  Thackeray  contrasted  Becky  Sharp  and  the 
Crawley  side  of  the  world  with  the  side  of  Major  Dobbin 
and  Amelia.  When  it  was  said  that  his  good  people  were 
innocent  babies,  that  was  his  praise ;  for  a  childlike  inno- 
cence, remote  enough  from  the  conception  of  the  cynic, 
was  Thackeray's  ideal  to  the  last.  If  Major  Dobbin 
seemed  too  weak,  Thackeray  mended  the  fault  in  Colonel 
Newcome,  to  whom  he  gave  the  same  feature  of  unworldly 
simplicity  and  innocence.  Thackeray's  sensibility  made 
him,  perhaps,  'a  little  too  much  afraid  of  the  conscious 
idlers  who  consider  themselves  men  of  the  world.  Being 
himself  tenderly  framed,  he  took  refuge  like  the  hermit 
crab  in  a  shell  that  was  not  his  own  but  served  well  for 
protection.  He  certainly  was,  in  his  younger  days,  some- 
what too  much  in  awe  of  the  conventions  of  society ;  for 
there  is  an  implied  bowing  down  before  them  in  some  of 
the  Snob  papers  that  is  saved  only  by  its  honest  origin 
from  being  not  conventionally  but  essentially  vulgar. 
Dickens's  Letters  have  been  collected,  since  his  death. 
They  are  in  three  volumes,  two  published  in  1880  and  one 
in  1881.  These  show  that  the  man  spoke  with  his  own 
voice  in  his  works.  If  like  aid  to  a  true  knowledge  of 
William  Makepeace  Thackeray  should  ever  be  given  in 
the  days  of  our  children,  it  will  make  nothing  more  clear 
than  the  gentleness  of  the  fine  spirit  from  which  his  novels 
came. 

The  Life  of  Dickens  by  his  friend  John  Forster  was 
published  in  three  volumes  in  1872,  3,  4,  and  a  sketch  of 
the  life  of  Thackeray  has  been  contributed  by  Anthony 


334  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Trollope  to  a  series  of  short  separate  biographies  of  "  Men 
of  Letters,"  edited  by  John  Morley. 

John  Forster  was  born  at  Newcastle  in  1812,  and  was 
educated  there  at  the  old  grammar  school,  now  pulled 
down  to  make  room  for  a  new  railway  station.  He 
showed  his  bent  towards  Literature  as  a  child,  and  as  a 
schoolboy  wrote  a  play  that  was  produced  on  the  New- 
castle stage.  He  was  sent  to  Cambridge  at  the  time  when 
the  new  London  University  was  being  founded,  and  trans- 
ferred from  Cambridge  to  University  College,  London, 
where  he  studied  law,  under  Andrew  Amos,  with  James 
Emerson  Tennent  and  James  Whiteside,  afterwards  Chief 
Justice  of  Ireland,  for  his  most  intimate  friends  and  fellow 
students.  At  eighteen,  he  was  writing  for  magazines  and 
studying  in  the  chambers  of  an  eminent  special  pleader, 
Thomas  Chitty.  In  the  year  of  the  Reform  Bill  Forster 
was  also  writing  politics  in  "  the  True  Sun  "  when  Dickens 
became  a  reporter  for  that  paper,  and  their  life-long  friend- 
ship then  began. 

"  The  Examiner  "  newspaper,  when  it  left  the  hands  of 
Leigh  Hunt  and  his  brother,  had  been  bonght  by  a  Rev. 
Dr.  Fellowes,  who  wished  to  advocate  many  reforms  and 
religious  toleration  as  an  aid  to  the  religious  life.  In  1830 
Dr.  Fellowes  entrusted  the  management  of  "  the  Examin- 
er "  to  Albany  Fonblanque.  Albany  William  Fonblanque, 
born  in  1793,  was  the  son  of  an  eminent  lawyer,  and  had 
turned  first  from  training  for  the  army  to  study  of  law. 
But  at  twenty  he  was  drawn  into  Literature  by  his  in- 
terest in  questions  of  the  day,  and  he  soon  became  a 
brilliant  newspaper  writer.  Between  1820  and  1830,  he 
had  written  for  "  the  Times,"  "  the  Morning  Chronicle," 
"  the  Examiner  "  and  other  papers,  and  in  1830,  when  he 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  335 

was  entrusted  with  the  editing  of  "  the  Examiner  "  the 
old  strength  of  the  journal  was  renewed. 

John  Forster  was  among  writers  in  "the  Examiner," 
and  within  three  years  after  Albany  Fonblanque  had 
become  its  editor,  Forster  was  as  his  right  hand  in  its 
management.  To  Dionysius  Lardner's  "  Cabinet  Cyclo- 
paedia of  Original  Works  on  History,  Biography,  Natural 
Philosophy,  Natural  History,  Arts  and  Manufactures," 
published  between  1829  and  1846,  Forster  contributed 
at  the  age  of  24  the  first  of  five  volumes  of  the  "  Lives  of 
the  Statesmen  of  the  Commonwealth."  The  last  volume 
appeared  in  1839  and  in  1840  there  was  a  new  edition  of 
the  whole  work.  In  1842-43  he  edited  the  "  Foreign 
Quarterly  Review,"  he  was  writing  also  in  "the  Edin- 
burgh Review,"  and  throughout  full  of  activity  for  "the 
Examiner,"  of  which  he  became  editor  in  1847.  Fon- 
blanque, who  had  become,  and  remained,  chief  proprietor, 
withdrew  then  from  the  work  of  editing,  upon  his  ap- 
pointment as  chief  of  the  Statistical  Department  of  the 
Board  of  Trade.  Fonblanque  parted  with  the  paper  only 
a  little  while  before  his  death  in  1872,  and  wrote  in  it 
every  week  while  it  was  his.  In  1848  John  Forster  pub- 
lished his  "Life  of  Goldsmith,"  which  at  once  took  its 
place  as  one  of  the  best  biographies  in  English  Literature. 
In  September  1854  his  Essay  on  Foote,  and  in  March 
1855  his  Essay  on  Steele,  appeared  in  the  "  Quarterly 
Review."  The  Essay  on  Steele  was  the  first  serious  at- 
tempt to  rescue  from  misinterpretation  one  of  the  man- 
liest of  English  writers.  Fonblanque  wrote  of  it,  "  I  read 
your  'Steele '  with  admiration,  not  so  much  for  the  schol- 
arly writing  and  fine  criticism,  but  chiefly  for  the  wise 
and,  because  wise,  tender  humanity."     Forster  had  chosen 


336  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

from  among  the  writers  of  Queen  Anne's  time  Jonathan 
Swift  for  special  study,  and  was  during  many  years  col- 
lecting materials  for  a  Life  of  Swift.  In  1855  he  with- 
drew from  "  the  Examiner  "  on  being  appointed  Secretary 
to  the  Lunacy  Commission,  and  at  that  time  he  married. 
In  1858  his  articles  in  the  "  Quarterly"  and  "Edinburgh" 
Reviews  were  published,  in  two  volumes,  as  "  Historical 
and  Biographical  Essays,"  one  of  them  including  an  Essay 
"  on  the  Debates  on  the  Grand  Remonstrance."  In  1860 
he  published,  a  volume  containing  special  study  of  the 
attempted  "  Arrest  of  the  Five  Members  "  by  Charles  I. 
Then  he  resolved  to  give  his  latter  years,  with  failing 
health,  to  a  full  reconstruction  of  his  "Lives  of  the 
Statesmen  of  the  Commonwealth "  written  in  early  life. 
"  The  Life  of  Sir  John  Eliot "  appeared  accordingly  in 
1864.  The  death  of  his  friend  Walter  Savage  Landor 
turned  him  aside  to  the  writing  of  a  "  Life  of  Landor " 
published  in  1869.  The  death  of  his  nearest  friend,  out- 
side his  home,  Charles  Dickens,  turned  him  aside  to  the 
fulfilment  of  an  old  promise  that  if  he  survived  he  would 
be  Dickens's  biographer.  The  volumes  of  this  biography, 
in  which  Forster  lived  his  old  life  again  with  his  dead 
friend,  appeared  in  1872-4.  The  death  of  his  friend 
Alexander  Dyce  in  1869  imposed  upon  Forster  another 
office  of  love.  As  his  own  days  of  faithful  labour  drew 
to  a  close,  he  was  producing  a  third  edition  of  Dyce's 
Shakespeare  ;  also  an  edition  of  Landor's  works ;  the  last 
volumes  of  both  being  edited  after  Forster's  death  by 
another  old  friend,  the  Rev.  Whitwell  Elwin.  At  the 
beginning  of  1876  the  first  volume  of  Forster's  "  Life  of 
Swift"  appeared,  containing  much  new  and  suggestive 
matter.     It   remains  a  fragment.     Forster  died  within  a 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  337 

month  after  the  book  appeared.  Ill  health  had  with- 
drawn him  in  his  last  years  from  society,  in  which  he  had 
once  taken  a  keen  delight ;  and  he  had  always  a  loud 
important  manner  that  puzzled  strangers  and  amused  his 
friends.  But  he  was  full  of  kindliness.  No  successful 
man  of  letters  ever  used  his  influence  more  steadily  for 
the  prompt  recognition  of  the  worth  of  others.  Many 
who  now  are  firm  in  reputation  heard  the  first  voice  of 
emphatic  welcome  to  the  ranks  of  Literature  from  John 
Forster  in  the  "  Examiner,"  and  liked  the  voice  for  being 
loud.  He  had  enthusiasm.  Some  say  that  enthusiasm  has 
gone  out  of  fashion.  But  the  mind  can  no  more  live  in 
health  without  it,  than  the  body  without  fire. 

Enthusiasm  gave  warmth  to  the  work  of  the  three 
daughters  of  the  Rev.  Patrick  Bronte,  who  married  Maria 
Bran  well  and,  in  1820,  went  to  live  in  the  Vicarage  at 
Ha  worth  in  Yorkshire  with  his  wife  and  six  children. 
The  children  were,  Maria,  born  in  1814 ;  Elizabeth,  born 
in  1815;  Charlotte,  born  in  1816;  Patrick  Branwell,  born 
in  1817 ;  Emily,  born  in  1818 ;  Anne,  born  in  1820.  The 
mother  died  in  1821,  and  her  place  was  taken  by  her 
sister,  Miss  Branwell,  who,  being  afraid  of  cold,  kept 
much  to  her  own  room.  In  July  1824,  Maria  and  Eliza- 
beth were  sent  to  a  School  for  Daughters  of  Clergymen, 
at  Cowan  Bridge.  Charlotte  and  Emily  followed  in  Sep- 
tember. In  the  spring  of  1825  low  fever  broke  out  in 
the  school,  Maria  (the  Helen  Burns  of  "  Jane  Eyre ") 
was  taken  home,  and  died  in  a  few  days.  Elizabeth,  also 
consumptive,  was  sent  home,  and  died  early  in  the  sum- 
mer. Charlotte  and  Emily  returned  to  the  school  after 
Midsummer,  but  were  removed  before  the  winter.  Char- 
lotte was  sent,  in  January  1831,  to  a  school  at  Roe  Head, 


338  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

between  Leeds  and  Huddersfield.  She  left  school  in 
1832,  sixteen  years  old,  and  taught  her  sisters.  In  1835 
she  went  for  three  months  to  Roe  Head  as  a  teacher. 
Emily,  sent  to  school  there,  became  homesick,  and  Anne 
was  sent  in  her  place.  Then  Emily  went  as  teacher  to 
a  school  in  Halifax,  while  Anne  and  Charlotte  were  in 
situations. 

In  1841  there  was  a  project  of  school-keeping  in  partner- 
ship with  the  Mistress  at  Roe  Head.  In  1842  Charlotte 
and  Emily,  to  qualify  themselves  in  French,  went  as  pupils 
to  the  pensionnat  of  Madame  and  Monsieur  Heger  at 
Brussels.  In  1843  Charlotte  Bronte  returned  to  Brussels, 
as  English  Teacher,  with  a  salary  of  <£16  a  year.  Estrange- 
ment arose  with  Madame  over  religious  differences.  At 
home  the  three  girls  and  their  brother  Branwell  had  lived 
their  own  lives  together  from  early  childhood,  little  ob- 
served by  their  aunt,  or  by  their  father  who  lived  chiefly  in 
his  study.  They  wove  fictions  and  dreamed  dreams,  with 
sensitive  child  natures  and  a  kindred  gift  of  genius  in  all. 
But  now  Branwell  had  fallen  out  of  the  little  company 
that  once  looked  on  him  as  cleverest  and  best.  He  had 
become  dissipated.  He  took  opium.  And  there  was  grief 
in  the  girls'  hearts. 

In  1846  the  three  girls  ventured  to  print,  at  their  own 
cost,  a  slender  volume  of  "  Poems  by  Currer,  Ellis,  and 
Acton  Bell,"  taking  a  name  for  each  that  agreed  with  her 
proper  initials.  They  could  venture  also  to  spend  two 
pounds  in  advertising  it.  The  little  book,  now  full  of 
literary  interest,  had  no  attention  from  the  public.  Each 
of  the  sisters  was  also  at  this  time  writing  a  novel.  Char- 
lotte's tale  was  "the  Professor,"  Emily's  "Wuthering 
Heights ;  "  Anne's,  "  Agnes  Grey."     They  have  all  been 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF   VICTORIA.  339 

since  published,  and  there  is  an  interesting  likeness  in 
their  differences ;  thoughts  and  experiences  common  to 
the  three  sisters  are  to  be  found  in  all.  They  had  ill 
fortune  among  the  publishers;  but  Charlotte  Bronte  fear- 
lessly began  another  novel.  This  was  "  Jane  Eyre," 
begun  in  August  1846,  at  a  time  when  she  was  lodging  in 
Manchester  with  her  father  who  had  gone  thither  to  be 
operated  upon  for  cataract,  and  when  she  was  nursing  her 
father  in  the  dark  room  to  which  he  was  then  confined. 
Next  year  Messrs.  Smith  and  Elder  declined  "  the  Profes- 
sor," a  novel  designed  for  one  volume,  in  kind  terms  that 
promised  attention  to  a  longer  work  from  the  same  hand. 
In  August  1847  Charlotte  Bronte  sent  them  "  Jane  Eyre." 
It  fascinated  two  publishers'  readers,  and  then  Mr.  Smith 
himself.  It  was  heartily  believed  in  by  the  firm,  and 
promptly  published.  The  reviewers  gave  only  doubtful 
signs  of  appreciation.  Alone,  at  first,  John  Forster,  who 
knew  genuine  work  when  he  met  with  it,  spoke  out  in  his 
heart}'  and  decided  way.  As  Mrs.  Gaskell  wrote,  in  her 
"  Life  of  Charlotte  Bronte,"  "  '  The  Examiner  '  came  for- 
ward to  the  rescue,  as  far  as  the  opinions  of  professional 
critics  were  concerned.  The  literary  articles  in  that  paper 
were  alwaj'S  remarkable  for  their  genial  and  generous 
appreciation  of  merit ;  nor  was  the  notice  of  '  Jane  Eyre  ' 
an  exception ;  it  was  full  of  hearty,  }*et  delicate  and  dis- 
criminating praise." 

In  the  next  year,  1848,  her  brother  Branwell  died,  and 
then  her  sister  Emily.  In  the  following  year,  1849,  Char- 
lotte Bronte  was  left  alone,  by  the  death  of  her  other 
sister  Anne.  These  griefs  all  came  upon  her  while  she 
was  writing  her  second  novel,  "  Shirley,"  which  had  been 
begun  soon   after  the  publication  of   "  Jane  Eyre,  "  and 


340  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

was  published  in  1849.  In  this  year  also,  the  author's 
name,  which  Charlotte  Bronte  had  succeeded  thus  far  in 
concealing,  became  known.  "Villette,"  the  pleasantest 
of  her  books,  including  recollections  of  the  old  school  life 
in  Brussels,  appeared  in  1853.  In  June  1854  Charlotte 
Bronte  married  Mr.  Nicholls,  who  had  been  for  more  than 
eight  )rears  her  father's  curate.  On  the  31st  of  March 
1855  she  died.  "When  staying  with  her  kindly  publishers 
she  observed  one  day  the  absence  of  "  the  Times "  from 
the  breakfast  table,  and  suspected  that  it  had  been  put 
aside  because  it  contained  an  unfavourable  review  of 
"  Shirley  "  then  just  published.  She  persisted  in  desire  to 
see  it,  found  that  it  condemned  her  for  indelicacy,  and, 
though  she  hid  her  face  behind  the  ample  pages,  her  tears 
were  to  be  heard  falling  on  the  paper.  The  review  was 
honestly  meant  and  the  reviewer  was  not  alone  in  taking 
a  man  of  the  world's  view  of  imaginings  that  trespassed 
through  the  very  innocence  of  the  lone  woman  who  wrote 
while  brother  and  both  sisters  were  dying  by  her  side. 
Mrs.  Gaskell's  life  of  her  friend,  published  soon  after 
Charlotte  Bronte's  death,  made  all  this  clear. 

Elizabeth  C leghorn  Gaskell,  wife  of  the  Rev.  William 
Gaskell  of  Manchester,  was  born  in  1810.  She  was  the 
daughter  of  the  Rev.  William  Stevenson,  and  spent  much 
of  her  girlhood  with  an  aunt  at  Knutsford,  in  Cheshire,  of 
which  place  memories  abound  in  her  "  Cranford."  She 
married  in  1832,  and  her  first  book  was,  in  1848,  a  novel, 
"  Mary  Barton,"  suggested  by  questions  concerning  factory 
labour,  which  told  a  tale  of  factory  life  with  blended 
pathos  and  humour,  and  with  a  keen  feminine  perception 
of  character  that  won  for  it  immediate  and  great  success. 
Charles  Dickens,  in  1850,  when  he  was  establishing  his 


JiV  THE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  341 

"  Household  Words,"  looked  immediately  to  Mrs.  Gaskell 
as  a  fellow  worker  who  would  touch  with  fine  imajnna- 
tion  and  with  depth  of  feeling  the  realities  of  life.  More 
novels  followed.  In  1850  the  Christmas  tale  of  "the 
Moorland  Cottage ; "  in  1852  "  Lizzie  Leigh,  and  other 
Tales,"  that  had  been  written  for  "  Household  Words." 
In  1853  followed  "  Ruth,"  a  novel,  and  "  Cranford  "  re- 
published from  "  Household  Words."  "  Cranford  "  is  a 
short  tale,  or  series  of  connected  Sketches,  representing 
with  a  delicate  and  playful  humour  society  at  its  narrowest 
among  maiden  ladies  and  their  friends  who  practise  elegant 
economies  and  seem  only  to  vegetate  in  a  small  country 
town.  But  with  the  tenderness  of  a  true  wisdom,  the 
whole  impression  given  is  but  another  reading  of  the  lesson 
that  "  the  situation  that  has  not  its  duty,  its  ideal,  was 
never  yet  occupied  by  man."  "  Here  in  the  poor,  misera- 
ble, hampered  actual "  of  Cranford,  Miss  Matty,  with  her 
limited  view  of  life  and  its  economies,  shaped  her  ideal. 
Mrs.  Gaskell  under  all  her  playful  humour  makes  us  feel 
that  souls  may  be  heroic  and  poetic  with  the  narrowest 
surroundings.  "  North  and  South  "  followed  in  1855,  "  the 
Life  of  Charlotte  Bronte "  in  1857 ;  and  among  other 
books,  "  Sylvia's  Lovers  "  in  1863.  "  Wives  and  Daugh- 
ters," her  last  novel,  was  appearing  in  "  the  Cornhill  Maga- 
zine," and  not  quite  completed,  when  Mrs.  Gaskell  died 
suddenly,  while  reading  to  her  daughter,  in  November 
1865. 

Let  us  now  pass  rapidly  along  a  line  of  writers,  most  of 
them  yet  living,  who  were  twenty  or  thirty  years  old  at 
the  beginning  of  the  reign.  Charles  Reade,  a  living  novel- 
ist and  dramatist  of  high  mark,  was  23;  Anthony  Trol- 
lope,  another  of  our  old  favourites,  still  living,  was  22; 


342  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Marmion  Savage,  a  lively  novelist  of  Irish  family  who 
died  in  1872,  began  his  career  with  a  clever  sketch  of 
Irish  society,  "  The  Falcon  Family,  or  Young  Ireland  "  in 
1845.  In  1847  followed  "the  Bachelor  of  the  Albany," 
and  in  1849  "  My  Uncle  the  Curate."  "  Reuben  Medlicott, 
or  the  Coming  Man  "  appeared  in  1852,  for  the  first  time 
with  the  author's  name  upon  the  title  page.  A  short  tale 
by  Marmion  Savage  called  "  Clover  Cottage  "  was  drama- 
tised by  Tom  Taylor  as  "  Nine  Points  of  the  Law." 

Elizabeth  Missing  Sewell,  born  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  in 
1815,  published  "Amy  Herbert"  in  1844,  and  this  has 
been  followed  by  a  long  series  of  religious  novels,  and 
books  helpful  to  the  spread  of  religious  education  by  the 
Church  of  England. 

Of  the  Churchmen,  Dr.  Liddell,  Dean  of  Christ  Church, 
still  living,  was  26 ;  Dr.  Colenso,  Bishop  of  Natal,  still 
living,  was  24.  It  was  in  1863-4  that  Dr.  Colenso  pro- 
duced the  "  Critical  Commentary  on  the  Pentateuch " 
that  raised  a  storm  in  the  Church  by  pointing  out  discrep- 
ancies inconsistent  with  faith  in  the  verbal  inspiration,  or 
the  single  authorship,  of  the  Books  ascribed  to  Moses. 
Henry  Alford,  Dean  of  Canterbury,  who  died  in  1871, 
and  edited  the  Greek  Testament  in  sections  published 
between  1841  and  1861,  was  25  years  old ;  Frederick  Wil- 
liam Robertson,  whose  Brighton  sermons  represent  the 
pure  spirit  of  Religion  freed  from  all  sectarian  hatreds, 
was  21  years  old  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  and  died 
in  1853.  Arthur  Penrhyn  Stanley,  who  sustained  long 
battle  for  the  advance  of  civilization  in  the  same  good 
cause,  was  20,  and  died  as  Dean  of  Westminster,  honoured 
and  beloved  by  all  his  countrymen  in  1881. 

In  History  there  was  John  Hill  Burton,  28  at  the  begin- 


IN   THE  BEIGN  OF  VICTOEIA.  343 

ning  of  the  reign.  He  died  in  1880,  leaving  among  other 
books  a  "  Life  of  David  Hume,"  published  in  1846,  and 
a  "  History  of  Scotland  from  Agricola's  Invasion  to  the 
Extinction  of  the  last  Jacobite  Invasion."  This  appeared 
in  successive  volumes  between  the  years  1853  and  1870, 
and  is  the  best  History  of  Scotland  that  has  yet  been 
written.  There  was  also  John  Sherren  Brewer,  born  in 
1810,  who  took  orders,  became  Reader  at  the  Rolls,  Pro- 
fessor of  English  Literature  at  King's  College,  London, 
and  died  in  1879  soon  after  presentation  to  a  vicarage  in 
Essex.  Professor  Brewer  distinguished  himself  by  his- 
torical research  in  many  forms,  and  chiefly  as  editor  at  the 
Record  Office  of  the  Calendar  of  State  Papers  for  the 
Reign  of  Henry  VIII.  In  this  labour  he  is  succeeded  by 
a  younger  historian  who  has  done  sound  work  of  his  own', 
James  Gairdner.  Historical  and  other  papers  contributed 
by  Professor  Brewer  to  the  "Quarterly  Review"  were 
published  in  1880.  Sir  Edward  Shepherd  Creasy,  born  in 
1812,  published  in  1851  a  popular  history  of  "the  Fifteen 
Decisive  Battles  of  the  World."  He  died  in  1878.  Charles 
Mem-ale,  now  Dean  of  Ely,  born  in  1808,  published  in 
1850-62  a  "History  of  the  Romans  under  the  Empire," 
and  in  1875  a  "  General  History  of  Rome  from  the  Foun- 
dation of  the  City  to  the  Fall  of  Augustulus."  Connop 
Thirlwall,  who  died  Bishop  of  St.  David's  in  1875,  and 
whose  "  History  of  Greece  "  published  first  in  "  Lardner's 
Cyclopedia"  (1839-44)  was  the  best  before  Grote's,  was 
but  three  years  younger  than  Grote.  He  was  born  in  1797. 
His  History  retains  its  place  among  the  best  books  of  the 
reign. 

Sir  Arthur  Helps,  born  in  1817,  ranks  as  a  historian  for 
his  "  Conquerors  of  the  New  World  and  their  Bondsmen," 


344  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

published  in  1848-51,  and  his  "Spanish  Conquest  in 
America,"  which  followed  it  in  four  volumes  between  1855 
and  1861 ;  but  he  is  perhaps  best  known  for  his  thoughtful 
essays  and  dialogues  upon  questions  of  the  time,  "  Essays 
written  in  the  Intervals  of  Business,"  1841 ;  "  Claims  of 
Labour,"  1844;  and  "Friends  in  Council,"  1847-51.  "The 
History  of  the  Five  Great  Monarchies  of  the  "World  "  is 
among  the  writings  of  the  Rev.  George  Rawlinson,  who 
was  born  in  1815,  and  is  still  active.  So  is  Austen  Henry 
Layard,  born  in  1817,  who  delighted  all  readers  in  1846 
with  his  account  of  researches  in  Nineveh. 

Thomas  Wright,  who  was  born  in  1810  and  died  in 
1877,  supplied  readers  in  the  reign  of  Victoria  with  many 
valuable  studies  of  past  life  and  Literature.  He  was 
educated  at  Ludlow  and  at  Trinity  College  Cambridge, 
where  he  graduated  in  1834.  Already  as  an  undergraduate 
he  had  begun  to  write,  and  he  was  honoured  by  many 
learned  societies  of  Europe.  He  was  in  1842  and  1856 
the  first  editor  in  this  reign,  of  "the  Vision  of  Piers 
Ploughman,"  since  edited  with  the  most  exhaustive  care 
by  the  present  Professor  of  Anglo-Saxon  at  Cambridge,  the 
Rev.  W.  W.  Skeat.  He  edited  also  in  1839  "  the  Politi- 
cal Songs  of  England  from  John  to  Edward  II. ;  "  "  the 
Latin  Poems  of  Walter  Map,"  in  1842,  and  his  "  De  Nugis 
Curialium,"  in  1850  ;  "the  Chester  Miracle  Plays,"  and  the 
"Owl  and  Nightingale"  in  1843;  Occleve's  "De  Regi- 
mine  Principum  "  in  1860,  and  other  important  pieces  of 
our  Early  Literature ;  besides  giving  to  the  general  public 
several  useful  and  amusing  books,  such  as  the  "  History 
of  Domestic  Manners  and  Sentiments,"  in  1862,  and  his 
"Histroy  of  Caricature,"  in  1865. 

Peter  Cunningham,  third  son  of  Allan  Cunningham  the 


IN  THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  345 

poet,  was  born  in  1816,  became  a  Clerk  in  the  Audit  office 
in  1834,  and  was  Chief  Clerk  from  1854  to  1860,  when  he 
retired.  Of  many  books  by  him  illustrative  of  the  past, 
the  most  widely  known  was  his  "  Handbook  of  London." 
He  died  in  1869.  Among  living  students  of  the  past 
there  were  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign,  Edward  Augus- 
tus Bond,  then  aged  22,  now  Chief  Librarian  of  the  British 
Museum ;  Henry  Octavius  Coxe,  then  aged  26,  among 
whose  valuable  services  to  English  Literature  was  an  edi- 
tion of  Gower's  "Vox  Clamantis  "  in  1850.  He  succeeded 
Dr.  Blandinel  as  Chief  Librarian  of  the  Bodleian  in  1860, 
and  held  that  office  until  his  retirement  in  1881.  Samuel 
Birch,  now  keeper  of  the  Oriental,  Mediaeval  and  British 
Antiquities  in  the  British  Museum,  was  born  in  1813, 
and  has  written  valuable  works  in  his  own  department 
of  study.  Sir  Thomas  Erskine  May,  born  in  1815,  should 
rank  rather  with  the  Historians  than  with  the  Antiquaries, 
for  his  "  Constitutional  History  of  England  since  the  Ac- 
cession of  George  III.,"  a  continuation  of  Hallam,  published 
in  1861-63.  He  has  written  also  a  work  of  highest  author- 
ity upon  the  "  Law,  Privileges,  Proceedings,  and  Usage 
of  Parliament."  The  present  editors  of  the  "  Edinburgh" 
and  "  Quarterly "  Reviews,  Mr.  Henry  Reeve  and  Dr. 
William  Smith,  were  young  men  of  twenty-four  years  old 
at  the  beginning  of  the  reign;  and  JohnThaddeus  Delane, 
who  edited  "  the  Times "  after  the  death  of  Thomas 
Barnes  in  1841,  and  himself  died  in  November,  1879,  was 
twenty. 

William  Edmonstone  Aytoun,  who  was  born  in  1813, 
became  Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh in  1845,  and  died  in  1865.  He  produced  in  1848 
his  "  Lays  of  the  Scottish  Cavaliers,"  which  have  passed 


346  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

through  about  twenty  editions.  His  "  Bon  Gaultier  Bal- 
lads," written  by  Aytoun  and  his  friend  Theodore  Martin, 
were  hardly  less  popular ;  and  when  a  young  poet,  Alex- 
ander Smith,  who  had  a  touch  of  genius  injured  by  over- 
straining for  effect,  found  imitators,  Professor  Aytoun 
wrote,  in  1854,  a  whimsical  parody  on  the  spasmodic  style, 
called  "Firmilian,  a  Spasmodic  Tragedy."  Aytoun  mar- 
ried the  youngest  daughter  of  John  Wilson  (Christopher 
North),  and  among  his  friends  was  Theodore  Martin  whom 
he  joined  in  the  work  of  translating  the  "Poems  and  Bal- 
lads of  Goethe." 

Theodore  Martin,  —  now  Sir  Theodore,  —  born  in  1816, 
practised  law  in  Edinburgh,  and  settled  to  law  business  in 
London  in  1846.  He  distinguished  himself  by  the  work 
done  with  his  friend  Aytoun,  by  metrical  translation  of 
his  own  from  Horace  and  Catullus,  and  from  German 
poets.  He  has  translated  Goethe's  "  Faust "  and  Dante's 
"  Vita  Nuova,"  and  he  has  written,  by  Her  Majesty's  com- 
mand, from  papers  and  letters  placed  at  his  disposal,  the 
"  Life  of  the  Prince  Consort,"  of  which  the  first  volume 
appeared  in  1874.  Of  this  large  work,  since  its  recent 
completion,  a  People's  Edition  is  being  issued  in  five  six- 
penny parts.  Wide  as  is  the  knowledge  of  the  worth  of  the 
laborious  and  earnest  man  who  used  the  utmost  influence 
of  character  and  position  for  the  well-being  of  his  adopted 
country,  yet  this  closer  study  of  his  life  deepens  the  preva- 
lent impression.  The  reign  of  Victoria  has  aided  life  and 
literature  by  highest  example  of  a  Queen  who  has  been  at 
all  points  womanly,  and  against  whom  the  one  complaint 
of  the  thoughtless  is  that  she  remains  devoted  to  the  mem- 
ory of  a  husband  in  whom  every  Englishman  has  found 
a  pattern  of  true  manly  worth.     It  is  well  that  in  such  a 


IN   TUE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  347 

reign  womanhood  has  been  worthily  represented  also  in 
our  Literature.  Life  speaks  through  literature  with  its 
true  voice  in  the  works  of  Charlotte  Bronte,  Mrs.  Gaskell, 
"George  Eliot  "  and  Mrs.  Browning.  The  strength  of  one 
such  writer  overweighs  the  weakness  of  a  hundred  triflers. 
Monckton  Milnes,  now  Lord  Houghton,  was  twenty-eight 
years  old  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign.  His  "Poems"  in 
two  volumes  were  published  in  1839 ;  "  Poetry  for  the 
People,"  in  1840  ;  "  Palm  Leaves,"  in  1844.  Other  living 
workers  who  belong  to  this  group  of  men  are  John  Stuart 
Blackie,  born  in  1809,  the  genial  Professor  of  Greek  at 
Edinburgh,  who  blends  poetic  instincts  with  his  scholar- 
ship ;  Dr.  John  Brown  of  Edinburgh,  born  in  1810,  whose 
"Horre  Subsecivse,"  published  in  1858-61,  contained  much 
good  matter  besides  the  often  reprinted  "Rab  and  his 
Friends,"  delightful  alike  to  dogs  and  men,  unless  dogs 
cannot  read.  Martin  Farquhar  Tupper,  author  of  "  Pro- 
verbial Philosophy,"  was  27  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign ; 
the  Rev.  William  Barnes,  author  of  "Poems  in  the  Dorset 
Dialect,"  was  27 ;  Alexander  William  Kinglake,  who  pub- 
lished in  1844  a  delightful  book  of  Eastern  travel  called 
"Eothen,"  and  has  since  written  a  full  History  of  the 
Crimean  War,  was  26.  Sir  John  William  Kaye,  who  pub- 
lished in  1851  the  "History  of  the  War  in  Afghanistan;" 
in  1853  a  book  on  "  the  Administration  of  the  East  India 
Company,"  in  1864-70  a  "History  of  the  Sepoy  War  in 
India,"  and  other  pieces  of  Indian  history  and  biography, 
died  in  1876.  The  Rev.  Mark  Pattison,  born  in  1813,  now 
Rector  of  Lincoln  College  Oxford,  and  author  of  a  schol- 
arly life  of  "  Isaac  Casaubon,"  published  in  1875,  is  still 
busy  with  useful  work ;  and  the  Regius  Professor  of  Greek 
at  Oxford,  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Jowett,  has  enriched  the  Lit- 


348  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

erature  of  the  Reign  with  what  will  remain  the  standard 
translations  of  the  Dialogus  of  Plato  (1871)  and  the  His- 
tory of  Thucydides  (1881). 

To  the  same  group  belongs  William  Ewart  Gladstone, 
born  in  1809,  and  still  most  active  among  the  active. 
Early  in  the  reign,  he  published  (in  1838)  a  work  on  "  the 
State  in  its  Relation  to  the  Church."  In  1851-1852  he 
called  strong  attention  in  two  pamphlets  to  the  arbitrary 
imprisonment  of  20,000  of  his  subjects  by  King  Ferdinand 
of  Naples  for  political  reasons.  In  1858  he  published 
"  Studies  of  Homer  "  and  in  1869  "  Juventus  Mundi :  the 
Gods  and  Men  of  the  Heroic  Age." 

Charles  Robert  Darwin  has  gone  farther  back  for  the 
"  Juventus  Mundi."  He  was  born  in  1809,  and  is  on  his 
father's  side  a  grandson  of  Erasmus  Darwin,  poet  physi- 
cian, and  on  his  mother's  side  a  grandson  of  the  great 
artist  potter,  Josiah  Wedgwood.  Charles  Darwin  began 
by  publishing,  in  1839,  "  Researches  into  Natural  History 
and  Geology  during  the  Voyage  of  the  Beagle."  In  1842 
his  book  on  "  the  Formation  of  Coral  Reefs  "  was  sugges- 
tive of  grand  operations  of  nature  in  the  work  of  the  small 
coral  builders.  His  next  study  was  of  "  Volcanic  Islands." 
Then  came,  in  1845,  "a  Naturalist's  Voyage  round  the 
World."  In  1859  Darwin  published  the  book  that  gave  a 
new  point  of  departure  to  scientific  thought,  "  On  the 
Origin  of  Species  by  means  of  Natural  Selection ;  or  the 
Preservation  of  Favoured  Races  in  the  Struggle  for  Life." 
He  had  been  working  at  it  since  the  days  when  he  was  a 
naturalist  on  board  "  the  Beagle."  Its  suggestion  that 
the  continuity  which  former  naturalists  had  observed  in 
the  scale  of  Nature  was,  in  the  case  of  animals,  produced 
by  gradual  development  from  lower  into  higher  forms, 


IN   THE  BEIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  349 

appeared  to  some  people  an  argument  against  belief  in  a 
Creator ;  but  it  in  no  way  interferes  with  faith  in  a  first 
cause.  In  1862  followed  a  work  "  on  the  Contrivances  by 
which  Orchids  are  fertilized  by  Insects ;  "  in  1805  another 
"  on  the  Movements  and  Habits  of  Climbing  Plants."  In 
1871  Charles  Darwin  wrote  on  "the  Descent  of  Man,  and 
Selection  in  relation  to  Sex ; "  in  1872  "  on  the  Expres- 
sion of  the  Emotions  in  Man  and  Animals,"  and  his  last 
book,  published  in  1881,  was  on  "the  Earth  Worm,"  whose 
great  service  is  shown  as  an  agent  employed  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  the  earth  for  man.  Charles  Darwin  is  a  man  of 
genius  in  the  world  of  Science,  whose  place  answers  to 
that  of  a  great  poet  in  the  world  of  Literature. 

Of  the  writers  who  were  between  ten  and  twenty  years 
old  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign,  Florence  Nightingale 
was  seventeen.  Of  her  "  Hints  on  Hospitals,"  in  1859, 
and  "  Notes  on  Nursing,"  the  result  of  devoted  care  of 
the  sick  soldiers  in  the  Crimea,  more  than  a  hundred  thou- 
sand copies  were  diffused.  Miss  Charlotte  Mary  Yonge 
was  fourteen.  She  published  in  1853  "  the  Heir  of  Red- 
clyffe,"  and,  like  Miss  Sewell,  has  been  since  generously 
busy  in  using  her  pen,  as  a  novelist  and  otherwise,  in 
aid  of  religion  and  religious  education.  James  Anthony 
Froude,  Historian  of  "the  Reigns  of  Henry  VIII.  and 
Elizabeth,"  and  Edward  Augustus  Freeman  were  at  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  nineteen  and  fourteen  years  old. 
Mr.  Froude's  History,  in  twelve  volumes  (1856-69)  was 
followed,  in  1872-74,  by  three  volumes  on  "the  English 
in  Ireland  in  the  18th  Century."  The  most  important 
of  many  accurate  and  thorough  books  by  Mr.  E.  A.  Free- 
man is  his  "History  of  the  Norman  Conquest  of  England," 
in  five  volumes   (1867-79).     He  has  published  also,  in 


350  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

1881,  a  "  Historical  Geography  of  Europe."  To  the  best 
historical  Literature  of  the  Reign  belongs  also  the  series 
of  works  in  which  Professor  Samuel  Rawson  Gardiner 
has  studied  the  reigns  of  the  two  earlier  Stuart  kings  of 
England.  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,  Matthew  Arnold,  David 
Masson  and  Henry  Morley  were  all,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  reign,  fifteen.  Henry  Thomas  Buckle  died  in  1862, 
having  produced  in  1858  and  1861  two  volumes  introduc- 
tory to  a  projected  "  History  of  Civilization  "  in  Europe. 
Buckle's  view  of  History  was  the  reverse  of  Carlyle's,  for 
he  ascribed  no  influence  to  the  independent  force  of  char- 
acter, and  pleasantly  startled  readers  by  extravagant  state- 
ment of  the  half  truth  that  all  events  depend  on  the  action 
of  inevitable  law.  He  said  also  that  the  moral  element 
was  of  less  consequence  than  the  intellectual  in  a  History 
of  Civilization,  because  moral  principles  are  the  same  as 
they  were  a  thousand  years  ago,  and  all  the  progress  has 
been  intellectual.  Steam  also  is  what  it  was  a  thousand 
years  ago ;  and  intellect  has  developed  the  steam-engine. 
But  where  lies  the  motive  power  to  which  every  ingenious 
detail  has  been  made  subordinate  ?  Matthew  Arnold,  son 
of  Dr.  Arnold  of  Rugby,  has  written  some  of  the  most  re- 
fined verse  of  our  day,  and  taken  a  chief  place  among  the 
critics.  He  has  aided  the  advance  of  education,  and 
touched  questions  of  religion.  The  chief  work  of  David 
Masson,  Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  English  Literature  in 
the  University  of  Edinburgh,  is  his  Life  of  Milton,  told  in 
connexion  with  the  History  of  his  Time,  in  six  volumes, 
begun  in  1859  and  finished  in  1880.  It  is  a  storehouse  of 
information,  laboriously  sought,  carefully  weighed.  A 
seventh  volume  will  consist  wholly  of  Index.  George 
Macdonald  and  William  Wilkie  Collins,  two  living  novel- 


IN   TUE  BEIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  351 

ists  of  high  mark,  and  George  Macdonald,  poet  also,  were 
boys  of  thirteen  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign.  Sydney 
Dobell,  who  gave  much  promise  as  a  poet  and  died  in 
1874,  was  also  thirteen.  Wilkie  Collins's  "  Woman  in 
White,"  published  in  1860,  remains,  perhaps,  the  most 
famous  example  of  that  skill  in  the  construction  of  a 
peculiar  form  of  plot  which  excited,  at  last,  the  emulation 
of  Charles  Dickens,  who  was  in  "  Edwin  Drood "  a  fol- 
lower of  his  friend  Wilkie  Collins.  Among  living  men 
of  science,  John  Tyndall  was  aged  seventeen,  and  Thomas 
Henry  Huxley  twelve.  Edward  Hayes  Plumptre,  divine 
and  poet,  now  Dean  of  Wells,  was  nineteen.  William 
Hepworth  Dixon,  who  died  in  December  1879,  after  an 
active  literary  life  during  part  of  which  he  edited  "the 
Athenaeum,"  was  sixteen.  Philip  James  Bailey,  who  pub- 
lished in  1839  the  remarkable  poem  of  "  Festus,"  was 
twenty-one  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign.  John  Westland 
Marston,  a  dramatic  poet  who  has  produced  several  good 
plays  on  the  stage,  was  seventeen,  and  John  Orchard 
Halliwell-Phillips,  one  of  our  ablest  and  most  patient 
students  of  Shakespeare,  was  seventeen.  Charles  Kingsley 
and  "  George  Eliot  "  were  eighteen. 

Charles  Kingsley  was  born  in  1819  in  the  vicarage  of 
Holne  on  the  border  of  Dartmoor.  After  being  at  school 
in  Clifton  and  Helston,  he  was  sent  to  King's  College, 
London,  and  went  thence,  in  1838,  to  Magdalene  College, 
Cambridge.  He  graduated  with  high  honours,  took  a 
curacy  at  Eversley  in  Hampshire,  where  in  1841  he 
became  rector.  In  that  year  he  married.  In  1847  he 
first  made  his  genius  known  by  publishing  a  dramatic 
poem,  "the  Saint's  Tragedy,"  upon  the  story  of  St.  Eliza- 
beth of  Hungary.     In  1848  he  was  stirred  deeply  by  the 


352  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

events  of  the  new  Revolution  in  France.  There  was  a 
menacing  Chartist  movement  in  England,  and  Kingsley, 
joining  himself  with  F.  D.  Maurice  whose  books  had 
strongly  influenced  his  mind,  laboured  to  put  Christian 
life  into  the  masses,  while  showing  sympathy  with  their 
best  hopes  and  knowledge  of  the  evils  that  then  cried  for 
remedy.  Kingsley's  "Alton  Locke,"  in  1850,  and  his 
"Yeast,"  in  1851,  represented  the  stir  of  the  time,  and 
showed  what  it  meant  in  the  long  struggle  towards  a 
better  life  on  earth.  Other  novels  and  poems  followed : 
"Westward  ho!"  in  1855;  "Two  Years  Ago,"  in  1857; 
"Andromeda,  and  other  Poems,"  in  1858.  "The  Water 
Babies,  a  Fairy  Tale  for  a  Land  Baby,"  in  18G3 ;  "  Here- 
ward  the  Wake,"  in  1866.  There  were  books  also  that 
helped  to  diffuse  his  love  of  nature,  as  "  Glaucus,  or  the 
Wonders  of  the  Shore,"  in  1857 ;  with  writings  upon 
social  history  and  volumes  of  sermons.  In  1859  Charles 
Kingsley  was  appointed  Regius  Professor  of  Modern  His- 
tory at  Cambridge,  and  also  Chaplain  in  Ordinary  to  the 
Queen.  In  1869  he  obtained  a  Canonry  in  Chester.  In 
1873  he  became  Canon  of  Westminster.  In  January  1875 
he  died.  A  fitting  biography  was  published  by  the  com- 
panion of  all  his  thoughts,  his  widow,  in  1879. 

"  George  Eliot  "  was  the  name  taken  by  a  novelist  of 
rare  genius  whose  maiden-name  was  Mary  Ann  Evans. 
She  was  born  in  November  1819  at  Griff  near  Nuneaton 
in  Warwickshire,  where  her  father  was  land  agent  and 
surveyor  to  several  estates.  When  she  was  about  fifteen, 
her  mother  died,  and  she  was  youngest  daughter  in  the 
house.  She  went  to  a  school  at  Nuneaton,  and  removed 
with  her  father,  in  1841,  to  Foleshill  near  Coventry. 
The  elder  children  then  were  all  married,  and  at  Foles- 


IN   THE  REIGN   OE  VICTORIA.  353 

hill  she  was  alone  with  her  father,  from  whom  she  took 
some   features  for  her  Caleb   Garth  in   "  Middlemarch." 

The  head  master  of  the  Coventry  Grammar  School  gave 
Miss  Evans  lessons  in  Greek  and  Latin.  She  taught 
herself  Hebrew;  learnt  French,  German  and  Italian  from 
another  master ;  and  music,  in  which  she  took  intense 
delight,  from  the  organist  of  St.  Michael's  church  at  Cov- 
entry. Her  chief  friends  at  Coventry  were  a  gentleman 
and  his  wife,  of  high  intellectual  and  personal  character, 
who  both  wrote  useful  books,  and  in  whose  house  she 
found  the  intellectual  society  she  needed.  But  her  friends 
had  put  aside  the  Christianity  to  which  at  Nuneaton  she 
had  been  strongly  attached.  The  society  at  the  house 
of  her  friends  was  intellectual  and  sceptical.  Another 
friend  was  found,  whose  influence  was  yet  stronger  in 
the  same  direction.  Taking  up  the  unfinished  work  of 
a  daughter  of  her  new  friend's,  Mary  Ann  Evans  com- 
pleted a  translation  of  Strauss's  "  Leben  Jesu,"  which 
was  published  in  1846.  Such  work  brought  her  at  times 
to  London  and  into  the  society  of  thinkers  like  those 
whom  she  had  learned  to  respect  at  Coventry.  In  1849 
her  father  died,  and  she  left  Foleshill.  Her  home  then 
was  with  her  Coventry  friends  till  1851.  She  then  re- 
moved to  London,  to  assist  Mr.  John  Chapman  in  editing 
a  new  series  of  "  the  Westminster  Review."  This  brought 
her  next  into  relation  with  George  Henry  Lewes. 

George  Henry  Lewes,  born  in  1817,  had  begun  the 
world  as  clerk  in  the  house  of  a  Russian  merchant.  He 
had  an  active,  eager  intellect  with  equal  appetite  for 
Literature  and  Science,  but  none  for  the  counting-house. 
He  left  business ;  studied  in  Germany  for  a  year  or  two  ; 
and  then  began  to  write,  producing  many  books  and  con- 


354  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

tributing  to  man)'  journals.  He  wrote  "  a  Biographical 
History  of  Philosophy,"  of  which  there  was  an  enlarged 
fourth  edition  in  1871.  In  1846  he  wrote  two  novels, 
"  Ranthorpe  "  and  "  Rose,  Blanche,  and  Violet,"  in  1847 
and  1848,  a  Tragedy,  "the  Noble  Heart,"  which  was 
acted  at  Manchester  in  1848,  "  a  Life  of  Robespierre  "  in 
1849.  He  was  enthusiastic  for  the  Positivism  of  Auguste 
Comte,  and  published  a  book  on  "  Comte's  Philosophy  of 
the  Sciences,"  in  1853.  The  Philosophy  of  Comte  has 
also  strong  supporters  in  a  few  able  and  earnest  English 
thinkers,  subject  to  impulse  originally  received  from  some 
enthusiastic  students  of  Wadham  College,  Oxford,  who 
have  carried  out  their  ideal  in  afterlife.  Its  aim  is  gen- 
erous and  just.  It  is,  indeed,  little  more  than  the  French 
crystallization  into  a  single  and  harmonious  theory  of  the 
main  thought  of  our  time,  that  only  by  the  fidelity  of 
each  one  to  the  highest  sense  of  duty  we  advance  Hu- 
manity. To  most  people  this  is  a  part  of  religion ;  to 
Comte  it  was  the  clear  and  perfect  whole,  expressed  in 
formulas,  and  shaped  into  a  science,  of  which  the  worst 
enemy  can  only  say  that  it  is  a  truth  but  not  the  whole 
truth,  and  a  truth  that,  rightly  acted  on,  can  only  work 
for  the  well-being  of  the  world. 

What  was  fascinating  in  this  doctrine,  Miss  Evans  felt. 
She  joined  her  life  to  that  of  Mr.  Lewes  by  a  faithful 
bond,  though  there  were  reasons  why  it  could  not  have 
"the  social  sanction."  In  1856  the  first  work  of  "  George 
Eliot "  —  "  Scenes  of  Clerical  Life  "  —  was  offered  to 
"  Blackwood's  Magazine,"  and  the  first  of  the  three  stories, 
"Amos  Barton,"  began  to  appear  in  1857.  In  January 
1859  "Adam  Bede  "  was  published,  and  "George  Eliot" 
took  her  place  in  the  front  rank  of   English  novelists. 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  ■'.'>') 

"The  Mill  on  the  Floss "  followed  in  1860;  "Silas  Mar- 
ner,"  in  18G1 ;  "Romola,"  in  1863;  "Felix  Holt,"  in 
18G6;  "The  Spanish  Gipsy,"  a  poem,  in  1868;  "Middle- 
march,"  in  1872,  "Daniel  Deronda,"  in  1877,  and  in 
1879,  "  Impressions  of  Theophrastus  Such."  Mr.  Lewes 
had  founded  in  1865  the  "  Fortnightly  Review  "  —  after- 
wards made  monthly,  without  change  of  name — for  the 
purpose  of  bringing  within  one  journal  both  sides  of  the 
discussion  of  all  matters  that  concerned  the  general  well- 
being.  The  conception  was  a  noble  one.  It  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  establishment,  in  1866,  of  the  "  Contempo- 
rary Review,"  with  like  purpose  but  with  a  religious  bias, 
as  in  "  the  Fortnightly "'  the  bias  would  be  Positivist. 
These  were  followed  yet  again  by  another  monthly,  in 
1877,  "  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  which  vigorously  labours 
also  to  bring  the  best  minds  of  all  forms  of  thought  into 
council  with  the  public.  In  May  1879  Mr.  Lewes  died. 
In  May  188,0  George  Eliot  was  married  to  an  old  and  de- 
voted friend,  Mr.  John  Walter  Cross.  On  the  22d  of  the 
following  December  she  died  after  a  short  illness. 

George  Eliot's  novels  are  admirably  various  in  their 
scenery.  They  now  paint  Methodist  life  in  the  days  of 
Wesley,  now  Mediaeval  Catholicism  in  the  days  of  Savo- 
narola, now  the  whole  range  of  the  Jewish  nationality. 
They  are  alike  in  their  rich  play  of  humour  and  pathos, 
in  sympathy  with  the  varieties  of  human  character,  in  the 
spirit  of  humanity  that  is  allied  with  every  honest  aspira- 
tion ;  they  are  alike  also  in  the  steadiness  with  which 
every  one  exalts  the  life  that  is  firmly  devoted  to  the 
highest  aim  it  knows.  Again  and  again,  there  is  the  type 
of  the  weak  pleasure-loving  mind,  too  easily  misled,  and 
of  the  firm  spirit,  capable  of  self-denial,  true  to  its  own 


856  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

highest  sense  of  right.  George  Eliot's  novels  will  cloud 
no  true  faith;  they  are  the  work  of  a  woman  of  rare 
genius  whose  place  is,  for  all  time,  among  the  greatest 
novelists  our  country  has  produced. 

John  Ruskin,  who  was  born  in  1819,  and  began  his 
teaching  when  he  published  his  "Modern  Painters,"  in 
1843-46,  has  in  all  his  writings  used  his  genius  as  faith- 
fully. Beginning  with  the  warning  to  painters,  that  they 
should  show  truly  the  forms  of  clouds,  and  trees,  and 
mountain  ranges,  he  enlarged  his  teaching  from  the  first 
by  application  of  it  to  sincerity  of  life.  Where  he  seems 
least  reasonable,  what  we  call  his  unreason,  comes  only  of 
the  firm  upholding  of  a  single  thought.  One  truth  in 
Art  and  Life,  —  for  Art  like  Literature,  is  but  the  speak- 
ing breath  of  life,  —  one  great  truth,  is  enough  for  one 
man  to  uphold.  "  We  are  not  sent  into  this  world,"  says 
Ruskin,  "  to  do  anything  into  which  we  cannot  put  our 
hearts.  .  .  .  There  is  dreaming  enough,  and  earthiness 
enough,  and  sensuality  enough  in  human  existence  with- 
out our  turning  the  few  glowing  moments  of  it  into 
mechanism ;  and  since  our  life  must  at  the  best  be  but  a 
vapour  that  appears  for  a  little  time  and  then  vanishes 
away,  let  it  at  least  appear  as  a  cloud  in  the  height  of 
Heaven,  not  as  the  thick  darkness  that  broods  over  the 
blast  of  the  Furnace,  and  rolling  of  the  Wheel."  That 
thought  is  none  the  less  true  for  a  dozen  errors  in  the 
application  of  it. 

There  was  a  like  sense  of  life  in  Mrs.  Browning's  "  Cry 
of  the  Children."  The  first  book  of  poems  to  which  that 
true  poetess  set  her  name,  "  the  Seraphim,"  represented 
voices  of  the  angels  as  they  looked  at  Him  who  yet  hung 
dying  on  the  Cross  at  Calvary.     Out  of  the   depths   of 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF   VICTORIA.  357 

Christianity  came  her  plea  for  the  higher  life  of  man. 
Her  call  for  union  of  the  thinker  with  the  worker,  the 
idealist  with  the  man  eager  to  provide  for  each  day's  hit- 
ter need,  gave  to  her  poem  of  "Aurora  Leigh,"  published 
in  1857,  a  tone  blending  with  the  thoughtful  music  of  her 
husband.  Robert  Browning  in  his  "Paracelsus"  showed 
the  failure  of  one  who  desired  at  a  bound  to  reach  the  far 
ideal ;  in  "  Sordello,"  showed  the  poet  before  Dante,  seek- 
ing his  true  place  in  life,  and  finding  it  only  when  he 
became  leader  of  men  in  the  real  battle  of  life,  and  poet 
all  the  more.  If  there  be  no  full  civilization  to  be  won 
on  earth  by  those  who  shall  come  after  us  in  distant 
years,  yet  we  must  labour  on,  not  dreaming,  but  doing. 
And  to  the  poet  we  must  go  for  utterances  of  the  soul  of 
action ;  for  no  true  poet  is  "  an  idle  singer,"  and  no  day 
"  an  empty  day." 

Let  us  not  wrest  unduly  from  their  sense  these  words 
of  Mr.  William  Morris  in  the  prelude  to  his  "  Earthly 
Paradise."  Mr.  William  Morris's  poems  have  their  own 
great  charm,  but  have  not  yet  the  greatest.  Mr.  William 
Morris  was  three  years  old  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign, 
and  he  has  yet  to  set  the  crown  to  his  career  among  the 
poets.  Nor  let  us  leave  unnamed  the  witty  novels  of 
George  Meredith,  the  womanly  novels  of  Mrs.  Craik,  the 
pleasant  songs  of  William  Allingham,  and  the  verse  music 
of  Jean  Ingelow,  who  were  all  children  in  1837. 

Thomas  Hughes,  aged  fourteen  at  the  beginning  of  the 
reign,  was  a  boy  under  Dr.  Arnold  at  Rugby,  and  has 
since  helped  to  quicken  a  new  generation  with  the  spirit 
of  his  teacher,  in  the  most  popular  of  his  books,  "Tom 
Brown's  School-days"  first  published  in  1856.  It  was 
followed,  in  1801,  by  "Tom  Brown  at  Oxford." 


358  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Among  novelists  who  are  now  active  and  whose  works 
are  widely  enjoyed,  Mrs.  Henry  Wood  was  of  the  same 
age  as  "  George  Eliot "  and  Mrs.  Eliza  Lynn  Linton, 
daughter  of  the  Vicar  of  Crosthwaite,  in  Cumberland,  was 
fifteen,  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign.  Of  the  same  age 
was  Miss  Frances  Power  Cobbe,  who  has  been  an  ener- 
getic and  imaginative  writer  upon  social  questions.  In  fic- 
tion, indeed,  the  Literature  of  our  day  has  received  large 
contributions  from  the  lively  fancies,  quick  sympathies, 
and  shrewd  observation  of  character,  among  English 
women.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  general  reader,  who  is 
encouraged  even  by  many  erudite  writers  to  treat  Chris- 
tian names  as  of  no  consequence,  will  ever  distinguish 
clearly  between  Miss  Amelia  Blandford  Edwards,  born  in 
1831,  daughter  of  a  Peninsular  officer,  and  Miss  Matilda 
Barbara  Betham-Ed  wards,  born  in  1836,  whose  "  Kitty," 
when  it  first  appeared,  Lord  Houghton  enthusiastically 
praised  as  "  the  best  novel  he  had  ever  read."  These 
excellent  writers  really  do  live  separate  lives,  each  has  a 
distinct  style  of  her  own,  and  they  are  not  the  Mrs.  Ed- 
warcles,  who  is  also  well  known  as  a  novelist.  The  Baron- 
ess Tautphoeus,  who  also  writes  good  novels,  is  fairly  safe 
from  the  risk  of  a  confusion  of  this  kind. 

Lady  Georgiana  Fullerton,  second  daughter  of  the  first 
Earl  Granville,  has  also  written  with  refinement ;  and 
Miss  Harriet  Parr  (Holme  Lee),  who  published  her  first 
novel  in  1855.  Miss  Georgiana  Craik  began  to  write 
novels  in  1859 ;  and  we  have  biography  as  well  as  fiction 
from  Miss  Julia  Kavanagh,  who  was  born  in  1821  and 
died  in  1877.  Mrs.  Oliphant  has  been  already  mentioned, 
on  page  270,  as  one  of  our  novelists  of  finer  strain.  Miss 
Mary  Elizabeth  Braddon  achieved  her  first  success  with 


IN   THE  REIGN   OF  VICTORIA.  359 

"  Lady  Audley's  Secret "  in  1862 ;  "  Ouida  "  with  "  Strath- 
more"  in  1865.  Miss  Rhoda  Broughton  began  to  write 
novels  in  1867,  and  Miss  Florence  Montgomery  in  1870. 

Giovanni  Domenico  Ruffini,  born  in  Genoa  in  1807, 
made  England  for  some  time  his  home,  and  enriched  the 
literature  of  our  time,  in  1852,  with  an  admirable  book, 
"Lorenzo  Benoni,"  which  was  followed  by  other  stories. 
Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti,  son  of  a  distinguished  commen- 
tator upon  Dante,  was  born  in  London  in  1828;  his  broth- 
er, William  Michael  Rossetti,  in  1829;  his  sister,  Christina 
Georgina  Rossetti,  in  1830.  Dante  Rossetti  is  poet  and 
painter;  his  brother  is  an  active  critic  of  poetry  and  art; 
his  sister  Christina  is  a  poetess  of  no  slight  mark. 

George  John  Whyte-Melville,  who  was  born  in  1821, 
and  died  in  1878,  began  his  successful  career  as  a  novelist, 
in  1853,  with  "  Tilbury  Nogo,  Passages  in  the  Life  of  an 
Unsuccessful  Man."  Mr.  Whyte-Melville  was  Captain  in 
the  Coldstream  Guards  when  he  retired  from  the  army 
in  1849. 

Richard  Doddridge  Blackmore,  son  of  a  clergyman  in 
Berkshire,  graduated  at  Oxford  in  1847,  was  called  to  the 
bar  at  the  Middle  Temple,  and  practised  as  a  conveyancer 
before  publishing  his  first  novel,  in  1864. 

William  Black,  sixteen  years  younger,  was  born  at  Glas- 
gow in  1841,  and  came  to  London  as  a  journalist  in  1864. 
He  was  special  correspondent  of  a  London  daily  paper  at 
the  seat  of  war,  in  1866,  and  published  his  first  novel  in 
1867.  In  1871  he  attained  a  great  success  with  his 
"Daughter  of  Heth,"  and  since  that  time  he  has  main- 
tained his  place  among  the  best  of  living  English  novel- 
ists. The  characters  of  journalist  and  novelist  are  joined 
also  in  elder  men,  in  two  who  have  both  worked  under 


360  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Charles  Dickens,  and  been  counted  among  his  friends,  the 
lively  and  energetic  George  Augustus  Sala,  who  is  essay- 
ist  and  novelist ;  and  Edmund  Yates,  who  looks  also  at 
life  and  literature  as  novelist  and  journalist. 

Among  the  novelists  there  are  to  be  remembered  also 
Hamilton  Aide,  James  Payn,  and  Thomas  Hardy.  Justin 
MacCarthy,  born  at  Cork  in  1830,  has  not  only  won  hon- 
ours in  fiction.  He  completed  in  1880  a  "  History  of  Our 
Own  Times,"  in  four  volumes,  which  has  already  gone 
through  many  editions. 

With  all  this  thought  for  present  amusement  there  has 
been  throughout  the  reign  a  steady  increase  of  attention 
to  the  past.  Societies  have  been  formed  for  the  reprint 
and  study  of  our  Early  Literature,  and  in  this  way  no  man 
has  done  more  faithful  and  energetic  service  than  Fred- 
erick James  Furnivall.  Professor  Edward  Arber,  of  Bir- 
mingham, not  through  Societies,  but  by  his  single  personal 
devotion  to  the  work,  as  at  once  Editor  and  Publisher, 
has  diffused  140,000  copies  of  cheap  editions  of  rare  pieces 
of  old  English  Literature.  Professor  Alfred  J.  Church 
has  told  afresh  the  stories  of  Herodotus,  Homer,  the  Greek 
Dramatists,  and  Vergil,  in  books  equally  delightful  to  the 
scholar  and  the  child. 

And  there  still  lives  in  the  England  of  Victoria  the 
spirit  that  made  Elizabeth's  England  dear  to  Richard 
Hakluyt.  The  loss  of  Sir  John  Franklin,  in  1845,  with 
all  record  of  Search  Expeditions  down  to  MacClintock's 
"Voyage  of  'the  Fox,'"  published  in  1859;  the  Journals 
of  David  Livingstone,  and  records  of  those  explorations 
to  which  he  gave  up  his  life  in  central  Africa ;  have  added 
volumes  of  deep  interest  to  represent  the  Life  of  England 
in  the  Literature  of  the  present  reign. 


IN   THE  REIGN  OF  VICTORIA.  361 

Of  the  writers  now  strongly  representing  English  Lit- 
erature who  are  true  Victorians,  John  Morley,  born  in 
1838,  who  has  written  faithful  studies  of  the  literary 
movements  that  preceded  the  French  Revolution,  and  has 
just  written  a  thoughtful  and  honest  "  Life  of  Richard 
Cobden  ;  "  William  Edward  Ilartpole  Lecky,  born  also  in 
1838,  who  published  in  1865  his  "History  of  the  Rise  of 
Rationalism  in  Europe,"  in  1869  a  "History  of  European 
Morals  from  Augustus  to  Charlemagne,"  and  in  1878  a 
"  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  main- 
tain the  spirit  of  historical  research,  and  faithfully  apply 
their  studies  to  the  life  of  their  own  day.  Archibald 
Forbes,  born  also  in  1838,  represents  the  skill  and  cour- 
age of  the  modern  Newspaper  Correspondent.  Algernon 
Charles  Swinburne  has  long  since  taken  his  place  among 
the  poets.  There  will  be  no  want  of  faithful  work  as  the 
generations  follow  one  another.  The  author  of  "  the  Epic 
of  Hades  "  will  sing  other  songs  as  pure  as  those  by  which 
he  earned  his  fame,  and  rising  with  the  years  in  power. 
Even  while  these  lines  are  written,  a  poem  in  "  the  Nine- 
teenth Century,"  called  "  Despair ;  a  Dramatic  Mono- 
logue," bears  witness  to  the  abiding  vigour  of  our  Laureate, 
the  history  of  whose  work  covers  the  history  of  half  a  cen- 
tury, dating  from  the  volume  of  "  Poems ;  chiefly  Lyrical, 
by  Alfred  Tennyson,"  first  published  in  1830.  Tennyson's 
verse  has  shown  the  way  from  death  to  life  through  the 
sustained  song  of  immortality,  his  "  In  Memoriam  ;  "  has 
once  more  spiritualized  our  national  romance  hero,  and 
associated  tales  of  Arthur  with  the  king  within  the  human 
breast.  Among  poets  of  the  Reign  of  Victoria  he  too  has 
worn  his  laurel  as  a  "  blameless  king." 


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